The UP government has given apex pay scale to its acting Director General of Police (DGP) Prashant Kumar (IPS:1990:UP) bypassing at least 12 IPS officers senior to him in the hierarchy.
The apex pay scale (Level 17) is typically reserved for the full-fledged head of the state police force, which UP has not had since May 2022.
According to the IPS Pay Rules, 2016, the apex scale (Level 17) is given to the incumbent selected for the post of state police chief from amongst the officers holding the post of DGP in the state cadre in the Level 16 of the Pay Matrix. By granting apex scale to an acting DGP, the state government has ignored the guidelines prescribed by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) which says that the state government should form a panel of senior officers eligible to be appointed as the state police chief. And the state has not done so despite the repeated reminders of the Union Home Ministry.
