LUCKNOW: With UP DGP OP Singh set to retire on January 31, a trail of tussle for the top police post in Uttar Pradesh is already on. While UP government is believed to have sent a list of probables to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for consideration for the top post, a senior IPS officer Jawahar Lal Tripathi has moved with a petition to the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court flagging the fact that he was “not included” in the list of IPS officers sent to Commission.
The government reportedly sent the list of panel of the officers to the commission recently. Tripathi is currently posted as director-general (DG) of civil defence department. He has around eight months of his service period left.
A 1986-batch IPS officer, Tripathi has sought the court to direct the state government to include his name in the list sent to UPSC and consider his candidature also for the top post, Tripathi’s petition is likely to come up for hearing on January 24.
At present, there are 17 DG-rank officers in UP Cadre. Among them, Bhawesh Kumar Singh and Mahendra Modi are set to retire in January, this year while three others -- Duli Lukaratnam, Virendra Kumar and S Javeed Ahmad – are set to hang boots in March.
Moreover, three officers -- Arun Kumar, Nasir Kamal and Dr A P Maheshwari – are on deputation. Arun Kumar is DG, Railway Protection Force (RPF) Nasir Kamal is DG, Border Security Force (BSF) and Maheshwari is DG Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
Besides Tripathi, Hitesh Chandra Awasthy and Sujan Vir Singh are other officers at apr with him in race for the top post. Awasthy is Director General, vigilance while Sujan Vir Singh is Director General, police training.
According to sources, while Awasthy and Sujanvir figure on the government list. Four others include Raj Kumar Vishwakarma, G L Meena, Vishwajeet Mahapatra and RP Singh.