Uttarakhand is set to have a regular state Director General of Police (DGP) after 10 months, as the Centre held its much-awaited Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meeting on September 30.
Following the sudden DPC meeting on Monday in Delhi to appoint a new full-time DGP after 10 months since the retirement of former state police chief Ashok Kumar, senior government officials claimed that Uttarakhand will soon have its regular state police head.
According to officials, the Centre will send a panel of three probable names, including that of acting DGP Abhinav Kumar, to the state government for the final appointment of the new full-time DGP of Uttarakhand. Notably, the Uttarakhand police is currently headed by acting DGP Abhinav Kumar, an Uttar Pradesh cadre IPS officer who took charge on December 1, 2023, following the retirement of Ashok Kumar on November 30, 2023. His appointment was made over two other other senior officers from the state cadre.
Since Abhinav Kumar’s appointment, he has been heading the state police for the past 10 months. However, the new DPC meeting held by the Union Home Ministry has cleared the way for the appointment of a new regular DGP for the state. State chief secretary Radha Raturi was one of the DPC members, along with the Union Home Secretary, a UPSC representative, and others.
Uttarakhand is one of the states where the Government of India has relaxed the mandatory 30-year service condition for IPS officers to 25 years. In other words, an IPS officer with a minimum of 25 years of service in Uttarakhand qualifies to become DGP, compared to 30 years in other parts of the country. As a result, ADG-rank officials in the state are also eligible for appointment as the top cop.
Five ADG-rank officials qualified for promotion to DGP of Uttarakhand following the retirement of Ashok Kumar in 2023, in accordance with the minimum 25-year service condition for IPS officers. However, none of them were appointed as full-time DGP despite 1995 batch IPS officer Deepam Seth, currently on deputation with ITBP, being the senior-most among them. Another 1995 batch Uttarakhand cadre IPS officer, PVK Prasad, was also considered a probable successor to Ashok Kumar but he too was ignored.
Interestingly, Abhinav Kumar, a 1996 batch officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre, was appointed acting DGP of the state by the Pushkar Singh Dhami government. All three, along with two other ADG-rank officials, had completed 25 years as IPS officers in Uttarakhand.
It’s significant that by January 2025, both Seth and Prasad will have completed 30 years of service, thus being qualified for appointment as DGP without any relaxed provisions.