Kolkata, February 26 – The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has requested the names of Indian Police Service (IPS) officers in West Bengal to select one from among them as the new permanent Director General of Police (DGP).
Currently, Peeyush Pandey is the acting DGP.
The last permanent DGP in West Bengal was Manoj Malviya, who was Rajeev Kumar's predecessor and retired in 2023.
Sources in the state secretariat, Nabanna, said that following communication from the UPSC, the relevant department of the state government has already started the process of shortlisting the officers whose names would be recommended to the Commission.
"The names are likely to be forwarded to the commission by Friday," said a state secretariat source.
Based on seniority, the most probable name for selection as the new permanent DGP is Anuj Sharma, an IPS officer from the 1991 batch and currently serving as the Director General of the West Bengal Fire and Emergency Services Department.
Other probable names that might be included in the list of recommendations are those of the current acting DGP, Peeyush Pandey, Director General (Home Guard), Natarajan Ramesh Babu, Director General to the state correctional services, Siddh Nath Gupta, and Director General (Civil Defence), Sanjay Singh.
To recall, after the retirement of the then acting DGP Rajeev Kumar on January 31 this year, the state government appointed 1993 batch IPS officer Piyush Pandey as the acting DGP of the state police.
At that time, the Union Government accused the state government of not sending the list of names to the UPSC within the specified time. As a result, the Union Government refused to grant clearance for a permanent appointment for that position.
To keep the administrative work running, the state government appointed 1993 batch IPS officer Peeyush Pandey as the acting DGP. There were complications regarding the appointment of the DGP for a long time. Now, informed circles believe that the Supreme Court's intervention is finally going to break the deadlock.