Uncertainty looms as top cop set for DG post

MUMBAI: A high-level reshuffle in the IPS is on the cards in the first week of April. The move follows the retirement of DG (home guards) Sridevi Goel, a 1977 batch officer.
Mumbai police commissioner Satya Pal Singh is due for promotion as DG, but it remains to be seen whether chief minister Prithviraj Chavan will shift him or ask him to continue as the police chief.“It’s the CM’s prerogative. It’s not binding on the government to promote him immediately, even if there is a vacancy,’’ a senior bureaucrat told TOI on Friday.
The departmental promotion committee, headed by chief secretary J K Banthia, on March 26 approved the promotions of Singh, additional DG (law and order) Ahmed Javed and Thane police commissioner K P Raghuvanshi to the rank of DG.
The bureaucrat said in the event Satya Pal Singh is promoted, then as per seniority, Javed is the top contender for the commissioner’s post. But he will only have a tenure of three months as he too will be due for promotion as DG on July 1, following the retirement of DG (anti-corruption) Raj Khilnani.
Secondly, the bureaucrat said in the event one additional post of DG, which has been created last year, is filled and DG (housing) Pravin Dixit takes up a central deputation post, then both Javed and Raghuvanshi will miss the bus as both will be promoted to the rank of DG in the first week of April itself. Then additional DG (highway traffic) Vijay Kamble will emerge as the top contender for the post. Javed, Raghuwanshi and Kamble belong to the 1980 batch of the IPS. They are followed by P K Jain, S C Mathur, A K Sharma, Rakesh Maria and Meeran Borwankar, all of the 1981 batch.
“The CM and home minister R R Patil are in a piquant situation. If they accept the principle of seniority, in the next six months, Mumbai will have two police commissioners. Satya Pal Singh has been Mumbai’s CP for less than six months and if he is promoted, then his successor too will be in office for just three months,” the bureaucrat said.
A former DGP said it’s high time that either the Mumbai CP post is upgraded to the DG’s rank or given a minimum tenure of two years.