Hyderabad : For the top Post of the State police, there has been a buzz as to who will Succeed M Mahender Reddy as the Director General of Police (DGP). As Mahender Reddy will retire on December 31 2022, three senior IPS officers are said to be in the Race for the Top post in Police Departmenr
Special Protection Force DG Umesh Sharaf of the 1989 batch is the senior-most among the IPS officers, but he has only six months left in his service as he retires on July 2023. So, as per the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) norms, he is unlikely to be considered for the top post. After Umesh Sharaf, three 1991 batch officers — ACB Director General Anjani Kumar, Principal Secretary of Home Department Ravi Gupta and CID Director General Govind Singh are in line. But Govind Singh is unlikely to get the post as he will retire later this month.
Hyderabad City Police Commissioner CV Anand and Rajiv Ratan, both of 1991 batch, are in additional director general (ADG) rank. With the retirement of Govind Singh, both these officers are likely to get DG rank promotion, with one getting cadre post and another ex cadre post. They are likely to get a promotion in the first week of December.
As per the UPSC rules, the State government has to send names of five IPS officers who are in the DG rank or who have completed 30 years service. A committee constituted by the UPSC will finalise three names and send them to the State government to pick one of the officers to be appointed DGP.
Taking all these into consideration, the State government is likely to send the names of Umesh Sharaf, Ravi Gupta, Anjani Kumar, Rajiv Rathan and CV Anand to the UPSC in the first or second week of December.
The committee will short-list the names in the last week of December. After this, the State government will appoint a new DGP after retirement of Mahender Reddy on December 31.As per the speculation doing the rounds among the IPS circles, Anjani Kumar, Ravi Gupta and CV Anand are the front-runners for the DGP post. As per a tradition being followed by the governments, even in undivided Andhra Pradesh, the IPS officers who served as commissioners of police of Hyderabad were elevated as DGPs. They included Dinesh Reddy, Prasad Rao, Anurag Sharma, Mahender Reddy and other senior officers.
The race is likely to be between Anjani Kumar and CV Anand, who are said to enjoy the confidence of the powers that be, though Ravi Gupta cannot be ruled out, according to the grapevine. Ravi Gupta is an expert in information technology and served as IG, additional DGP of Police Communication and Technology, range DIG and IG Warangal
