LUCKNOW: After a period of four months of the ‘unceremonious’ removal of UP DGP Mukul Goel from the post, Uttar Pradesh is set to get a permanent Director General of Police (DGP) as the state government has sent a proposal along with the list of eligible IPS officers to the Union Public Service Commission
(UPSC).
The Commission will revert back with a panel of three senior-most IPS officers after evaluating their service records to facilitate the appointment of the new DGP.
Notably, the UP government had shifted DGP Mukul Goel on May 11, 2022, on charges of reluctance and disinterest in the performance of duties. Since then, DG, Intelligence, Dr DS Chauhan, a 1987 batch IPS officer, and believably close to CM Yogi Adityanath, has been officiating as the state DGP.
As per the rules, for the appointment of state DGP, the state sends names of the IPS officers who have already completed 30 years in service and have a service tenure of six months or more. As a result, a total of 42 IPS officers from MukulGoel of the 1987 batch to Neera Rawat of the 1992 batch conform to this condition.
As per the sources, the list of the IPS officers sent by the state government to UPSC comprises 20 officers of the Director General (DG) level and 22 at the ADG level. Of the 20 DG rank officers, six are currently on central deputation.
As per the seniority, besides Mukul Goel of the 1987 batch, RP Singh and GL Meena are other officers eligible for the top cop’s post in the state. However, the sources claimed that if the commission would consider the names from the date when the proposal was sent by the UP government, then RP Singh and GL Meena would be out of consideration as both would have less than six months of service
remaining.
In such a situation, RK Vishwakarma of the 1988 batch and current officiating DGP Dr DS Chauhan will be up for consideration for the post. After them, Anil Kumar Agarwal of the 1988 batch and currently on central deputation would be in the fourth spot as per the seniority followed by DG, Prison, Anand Kumar and Vijay Kumar of the same batch.
The highly-placed sources in the police department said that the commission would form the final list only after discussion with the state authorities. It would also take into account the inquiry, if any, pending against the eligible aspirants for the post.
However, in the present scenario, incumbent Dr DS Chauhan and RK Vishwakarma are considered to be strong contenders for the post.