Kolkata, January 24 (IANS). The West Bengal government has submitted the list of eight senior IPS officers to the Central Government for the next Director General of Police (DGP). This information has been received from government sources.
The West Bengal government has sent the list of eight senior IPS officers to the central government for the next Director General of Police (DGP). This list was sent to Delhi on 21 January. This includes acting DGP Rajeev Kumar, who is retiring on January 31.
Other names include Ranveer Kumar, Debashish Roy, Anuj Sharma, Jagmohan, N. Ramesh Babu and Siddhinath Gupta are included.
As per rules, the state government sends a list of senior IPS officers to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). After this, the UPSC committee selects three names and sends them back to the state government for the final decision.
Sources said Rajeev Kumar’s name has been included for administrative reasons as he was one of the senior IPS officers of West Bengal Police when previous DGP Manoj Malaviya retired in December 2023. Officials clarified that inclusion of his name does not guarantee reappointment.
According to sources, Piyush Pandey, Rajesh Kumar and Ranveer Kumar are being seriously considered. Piyush Pandey is a former SPG officer and is currently leading the security team of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. However, whether the final selection will be among these three or not is not certain yet.
This is the second time that the state has sent the list for the post of DGP to UPSC. The previous list, which was sent on December 27, 2023, was returned by UPSC due to errors. As per rules, the list should have been sent to UPSC at least three months before Malawi’s retirement, i.e. by September 2023. Meanwhile, IPS officer Rajesh Kumar had filed a petition in the Central Administrative Tribunal, in which he claimed that he was unfairly not included in the list despite fulfilling all the eligibility criteria.
Acting on the petition, the court last Wednesday directed the state government to re-submit the list by January 23. The court also ordered UPSC to convene its committee on January 28 and consider the names. The commission is expected to send the three shortlisted candidates to the state government by January 29, after which the state government will take a decision.
–IANS
AMT/DKP
