CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government is yet to announce incumbent state police chief Shankar Jiwal’s successor despite appointing him as the chairman of a newly formed Fire Commission with effect from Monday, the day after his last day in office.
Though the state government did not issue any orders at the time of going to press on Friday, highly placed police sources said that an order appointing DGP (adminstration) G Venkatraman as the ‘in-charge’ chief will be issued on Sunday. This comes after the state government sent the names of eight officers eligible to be appointed as the next chief to the UPSC just last week, the sources added.
Going strictly by seniority, Seema Agrawal, Rajeev Kumar and Sandeep Rai Rathore from the 1992 batch would have been the top three in contention for being chosen for the top job by the state government. The other five names submitted to UPSC include Vannia Perumal, Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal, G Venkatraman, Vinit Wankhede and Sanjay Mathur.
However, top police sources indicated that owing to the delay in sending the list of eligible officers to Delhi, the state government is likely to appoint Venkatraman, a 1994 batch officer and native of Nagapattinam, as the in-charge Head of Police Force (HoPF). Given that he is just 57, Venkatraman can have an uninterrupted stint till June 2028.
According to sources, the names of eligible officers should have been sent to UPSC three months prior to the incumbent’s last working day as per Supreme Court’s orders in the Prakash Singh case.
The official passing out parade of Jiwal and Shailesh Kumar Yadav, DGP and Chairman of TN Police Housing Corporation, who also retires on Sunday, was held on Friday evening at the Rajarathinam stadium.
Meanwhile, the order for the constitution of the Tamil Nadu Fire Commission made public on Friday, appointed Jiwal as its first chairman with effect from September 1. The six-member commission has been formed to implement the announcement made by Chief Minister MK Stalin, who also holds the home portfolio, in the Assembly on May 10, 2022.
The commission has 16 terms of reference, including suggesting measures to implement global best practices and modern trends in firefighting and disaster response in the state, to study means of generating funds for modernisation of fire services, install modern facilities to impart training to fire service personnel, study the National Fire Service College in Nagpur and London, and work on training programmes to provide certification.
It aims to create a pool of qualified fire safety and disaster management experts, grade rescue stations to provide better response to disasters in different parts of the state ((for example urban, rural, industrial, areas prone to Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Disasters and of Major Hazard Industries, Hill Stations and Forest Areas) and recommend how private parties can be involved in fire and rescue operations, the GO stated.
The commission will sit in Chennai and is allowed to tour other parts of the country or abroad as well, the GO added.
Apart from a chairman, the commission will have an additional director (administration), member-secretary of Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), former chief engineer (PWD) KP Sathyamurthy, and retired fire service officer M Namasivayam as full-time members. Dr AM Ikram, fire marshall secretary of the Indian Medical Association in Vellore's Christian Medical College, will be a part-time member.