HYDERABAD: With the six-month extension of service for state director-general of police Anurag Sharma ending in November this year, the race for the next head of police force (HoFF) has begun.
However, speculation is rife that Sharma might be given yet another extension for six months.
The recent meeting between chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and Sharma with Union home minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi has fuelled the speculation. The TRS government, since the formation of the state, has favoured non-controversial 1982-batch officer Anurag Sharma at the helm of police affairs. Initially, he was posted as in-Charge DGP for almost one year till 2015 and then appointed as DGP with full charge. He was due for retirement in February 2017.
Interestingly, at the time of the existing DGP’s superannuation, the state government did not clear a file on promoting officers of additional DGP rank to Director-General rank despite the Department Promotional Committee’s (DPC) recommendations to the government. The government wrote to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) seeking extension of Anurag Sharma’s term as the state had only two DG-rank officers and gave ‘extension’ to him Sharma till November. After the government gave full charge to Sharma after his retirement, the government has promoted four IPS officers to DG rank.
State has seven DG-rank officers
Apart from Anurag Sharma, there are six officers of director-general rank. They are 1983-batch IPS officer Tejdeep Kaur Menon (DG, Special Protection Force), 1984-batch IPS officer Sudeep Laktakia (on Central deputation and additional DG-CPRF), 1986-batch IPS officers Rajiv Trivedi (principal secretary, home), M Mahendar Reddy (police commissioner), Prabhakar Alok (additional director, Intelligence Bureau) and T Krishna Prasad, (Road safety and Railway police). Though there is some ‘technical’ logic in extending Anurag Sharma as DGP, some senior IPS officers feel that the state government must comply with the SC’s directions given in retired IPS officer Prakash Singh’s case.