Hyderabad: The AP government has sent the names of six senior IPS officers to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to finalise a panel comprising three officers for appointment as Director General of Police (DGP). The UPSC is expected to revert to the state government within a week.
While the AP government has already appointed 1986 batch IPS officer D. Gautam Sawang as the DGP, the exercise of sending proposals to the UPSC with the names of six senior most IPS officers is merely a formality aimed at regularising the appointment in accordance with the Supreme Court guidelines.
Sources told Deccan Chronicle that the names on the list include Mr V.S.K. Kaumudi, DG of Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), New Delhi; Mr Sawang, Mr R.P. Thakur, commissioner, printing and stationary, (all from the 1986 batch), Mr T.A. Tripathi, Mr N.V. Surendra Babu and Ms A.R. Anuradha of the 1987 batch.
Of the six, the UPSC will prepare a panel of three IPS officers based on their service records and other parameters and send it back to the state government. Therea-fter, the state will pick up one of the three, which in this case will be Mr Sawang.
Sources said that since Mr V.S.K. Kaumudi, the senior most in the 1986 batch, is not inclined to return from central deputation, he is automatically out of the race. As for Mr Thakur, who served as DGP during the TD government, there is no question of the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy government even considering his name. The obvious choice is Mr Sawang.
It remains to be seen if the UPSC includes the name of Mr Thakur in the panel as there have been allegations of being partisan during elections, something the UPSC would consider before it finalises the three names.
Besides, over the last month, there have been allegations surfacing against Mr Thakur of falsely implicating many government employees in ACB cases while he was heading the ACB.
All these aspects apart from general reputation is taken into consideration by the UPSC before finalising the panel. “If Thakur’s name is dropped by the UPSC, then Surendra Babu may figure in the panel as he has an impeccable track record,” sources said.
Though there is another 1986 batch officer in AP cadre, Mr Vinay Ranjan Ray, his name was not included as he will be retiring from service in the next two months. As per rules, a minimum of six months of service is required for the state government to include the name of the officer in the proposals to be sent to UPSC.
