The West Bengal government is reliably learnt to be preparing its list of eligible IPS officers to forward it to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) by Feb 27 for the appointment of a regular DGP. The UPSC had asked the state govt to forward the list of eligible officers to it for consideration for a new DGP.
The IPS officer, Peeyush Pandey (IPS:1993:WB), is currently serving as the acting DGP. The last full-time DGP was Rajeev Kumar’s predecessor, Manoj Malviya, who retired in 2023.
According to government sources, the state govt has already started the process of selecting the officers for recommending them to the UPSC for shortlisting. It is being done after receiving the communication from the UPSC.
Going by the seniority list, the most probable name for the regular DGP post is Anuj Sharma (IPS:1991:WB), currently posted as the Director General of the West Bengal Fire and Emergency Services Department.
The other names likely to be included in the state govt’s panel are acting DGP Peeyush Pandey (IPS:1993:WB); Natarajan Ramesh Babu (IPS:1991:WB), serving as DG (Home Guard); Siddh Nath Gupta (IPS:1992:WB), currently posted as DG of the state correctional services; and Sanjay Singh (IPS:1993:WB), serving as DG of the Civil Defence department.
The state govt appointed Piyush Pandey as the acting DGP of the state police after the retirement of the other acting DGP, Rajeev Kumar, on January 31 this year.
Needless to point out here that there have been complications regarding the appointment of a regular DGP for the state for a long time. But after the Supreme Court’s Feb 5 order directing the UPSC to initiate the process for appointing a regular DGP in every state, it is now believed to finally break the deadlock.
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