Chandigarh, April 6 The Punjab government is believed to have sent a panel of 14 senior IPS officers to the Union Public Service Commission to shortlist three candidates for the post of regular Director General of Police in the state, sources said on Monday.
Currently, IPS officer Gaurav Yadav is the acting DGP (head of the state police force).
The list sent to the UPSC included senior IPS officers with the rank of DGP.
The list included the names of 1992-batch IPS officer Gaurav Yadav, Special DGP Sharad Satya Chauhan (Chief of Punjab Vigilance), Special DGP (Anti-Narcotics Task Force) Kuldeep Singh, and senior IPS officer Harpreet Singh Sidhu (awaiting posting), according to sources.
In addition, the list also included Special DGP (Community Affairs & Women Affairs) Gurpreet Kaur Deo, Special DGP (Punjab State Power Corporation) Jitendra Kumar Jain, Special DGP (Railway) Shashi Prabha Dwivedi, Special DGP (Headquarters) Sudhanshi Shekhar Srivastava, Special DGP P K Sinha, Special DGP (Traffic and Road Safety) Amardeep Singh Rai, and Special DGP (Cyber Crime) V Neeraja, among others, according to sources.
Last month, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had said that his government would send a panel of officers for the selection of a regular DGP.
Previously, Punjab had been reluctant to send a panel for a regular DGP appointment, despite reminders from the UPSC to send a panel of officers for the selection of a regular DGP.
In February, the Supreme Court had pulled up some states, including Punjab, for having acting DGPs.
The Punjab government had passed the Punjab Police (Amendment) Bill in 2023, which empowers the state to appoint the DGP through a separate state-level committee. However, this bill is yet to be given assent by the President.
The AAP government had appointed Gaurav Yadav as officiating DGP in July 2022 after the state police head V K Bhawra was sent on leave.
As per the process, after a state sends a list of officers for appointing a regular DGP, the UPSC empanelled committee sends back a panel of three officers for shortlisting one among them as the state police chief.
Earlier in the day, the Punjab government appointed 1992-batch IPS officer Sharad Satya Chauhan as the state's Special DGP-cum-Chief Director, Vigilance Bureau.