Noida gets UP’s 1st woman police commissioner
NEW DELHI: IPS officer Laxmi Singh has been appointed by the Uttar Pradesh government as the new police chief of the Gautam Buddha Nagar district of the state. The 2000-batch officer will be the first woman to head a Police Commissionerate in Uttar Pradesh.
Laxmi, 48, who was serving as the Inspector General of Police, Lucknow range, will replace Alok Singh, a 1995-batch IPS officer, who has now been posted as Additional Director General of Police at the DGP office in Lucknow.
The commissionerate system was introduced in Uttar Pradesh in 2020, and the state currently has seven police commissionerates. With an all-India rank of 33, Laxmi had topped the civil services exam among the women candidates. She holds a post-graduate degree in sociology and a B.Tech degree in mechanical engineering. She began her career with her first posting as a senior superintendent of police in 2004.
The officers who have worked closely with her call her a ‘firebrand officer’ with a no-nonsense attitude, especially when it comes to crimes against women. It was Laxmi who led the Unnao case wherein three Dalit girls were allegedly poisoned by two people, including a juvenile. Both were nabbed.
Laxmi is known for taking stern action against organised crime. She was also given the responsibility to investigate the role of police personnel in gangster Vikas Dubey’s encounter. Laxmi is married to BJP MLA from Sarojini Nagar seat in Lucknow, Rajeshwar Singh, a former IPS officer who had taken voluntary retirement to join the saffron party. He last served as a joint director in the Enforcement Directorate in Delhi.
During her two-decade career, Laxmi has received several accolades, including a silver baton from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a 9 mm pistol as a prize from the Union Home Ministry.
‘A firebrand officer’
The officers who have worked closely with her call her a ‘firebrand officer’ with a no-nonsense attitude, especially when it comes to crimes against women. She is also known for taking stern action against organised crime.