Ranchi, June 11: J.B. Mahapatra is a troubled man.

The senior IPS officer, who has been going without salary for close to a year, has been given a new designation and a post he will hold with retrospective effect, a decision, he feels, will only add to his woes.

The government has posted Mahapatra as the director-general of police reforms with retrospective effect from June 30, 2005. But the post itself was created on May 16 this year, which has touched off a debate on whether Mahapatra can be paid for a period when the office did not exist.

Police sources said the government hastily created the post of DG (reforms) as it was unable to explain to the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) why Mahapatra was not being paid his due payscale even after assuming charge as chairman of the state police housing corporation.

A bewildered Mahapatra, who is yet to ?formally receive? the notification confirming his appointment as the state?s first director general of police reforms, believes this was another cruel joke. ?Even my appointment as the director-general of police reforms is not going to solve my problem. First, the accountant-general will never allow the payment DGP?s salary in my case in the absence of the Centre?s approval. How can I be paid for working in an office which did not exist and what will happen to the work done by me in the police housing corporation,? he said.

Sources in the office of accountant-general Benjamin Lakra said it is unlikely that Mahapatra would get the pay and perks eligible under the DGP scale as there was no such post till May 16. ?How can you pay someone for an imaginary post?? said a senior official.

Mahapatra was promoted to the rank of director-general in June last year along with V.D. Ram, the current state police chief. Ram?s predecessor R.R. Prasad was already holding the rank. Under the existing norms, the state cannot have more than two officers of DGP rank until it gets central approval.

Ram was made the state police chief while Mahapatra was made director-general of rail police, a post created to accommodate him. The accountant-general, however, objected to the payment of DGP?s scale to Mahapatra. He has been going without salary since his promotion.

Thereafter, he approached CAT for justice. Unable to justify its stand, the government appointed Mahapatra chairman of the police housing corporation.

But the accountant-general was not convinced. Meanwhile, CAT too pulled up the government for lapses. On May 15, the date of the last hearing, CAT reserved its order but the state hurriedly created the new post for Mahapatra. The final verdict is expected on June 26.

Home minister Sudesh Mahto, who is busy with his wedding preparations, said the government was only trying its best to somehow pay the DGP?s scale to Mahapatra.