Pre-poll shuffle may see Chitranjan Singh as full-time Gujarat DGP

The government has been treading cautiously on this issue since appointing Singh or anyone else as DGP would open a fresh front with Sharma.

For the government,appointing a full-time DGP is crucial as going by the Election Commission manual,the state must have all the administrative posts,including the chief of state police,filled up. The EC would come out with a separate manual in the month of October when the state has to show a regular DGP heading Gujarat to the Commission.

The government had appointed Singh (59) as an in-charge DGP in November 2010 when incumbent S S Khandwawala retired after serving an extension of three months. Singh’s is the first instance of an ADGP appointed as an in-charge DG & IGP.

All the DGP’s posts are vacant,and the one of police chief is vacant for the last 14 months,apart from two non-cadre DGP and one cadre DGP posts.

Sources say Modi has met Home Department officials twice over the issue and there might be a departmental promotion committee meeting soon. There is a possibility of a DGP who may be senior to Singh,being appointed from outside Gujarat,to avoid a confrontation with Sharma who retires in December.

“The government is all set to appoint a full-time DGP after promoting the four senior-most ADGPs. The promotions would happen in July-August that would fill up the cadre posts of the DG in the state. As for the two non-cadre posts,the government is likely to promote the cadre officers only,” said a senior Home Department official.

Besides Singh,the government is likely to promote ADGP (SC/ST cell) Deepak Swaroop (59) and Ahmedabad police chief S K Saikia (58) to the rank of DG to fill up the other posts.

Singh is from the 1976 batch of IPS officers and stands a better chance because two of his senior batch-mates,Kuldip Sharma (59) and V K Gupta (59),are on a deputation with the central government. Sharma is with the Bureau of Research and Police Development while Gupta is a Special Director in CBI.

While Gupta who stands a better chance of taking over as CBI director after A K Singh’s term gets over,may have no plans to return to Gujarat,Sharma may get the benefit of a promotion to DGP at the Centre,if his batch-mates are promoted here,say sources.

The government had chargesheeted Sharma alleging he went on a deputation to the BPRD without handing over the charge “officially” to the new MD of the Sheep and Wool Development Corporation. The case is still pending.

Sharma had moved CAT in 2010,where he accused Chief Minister Modi of downgrading the ranking in his annual confidential record (ACR). In his petition,he had alleged that he was being penalised for revealing the alleged misdeeds of state ministers and businessmen close to the government.

The Supreme Court took cognizance of Sharma’s petition and ordered the government to change his internal assessment markings from “very good” to “excellent’.

Recently,former DGP R B Sreekumar wrote to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram requesting him to intervene and press for appointment of a regular DGP in the state.