Top heavy TN police now have 15 DGPs

The Tamil Nadu government on late Saturday promoted five Additional Directors Generals of police (ADGP) as Director Generals of police (DGP), taking the total number of IPS officers in the top rank from the State cadre to 15. This is the first time State police have so many officers in the rank of DGP.

ADGP (Railways) D Sylendra Babu was promoted as DGP and his post was upgraded to DGP. ADGPs Karan Singha (Traffic and Safety), Prateep V Philip (Civil Supplies CID), RC Kudawla (Training) were also promoted as DGPs.

Vijay Kumar, ADGP, law & order, who has been functioning under chief DGP T K Rajendran, was posted as special DGP, law & order, a newly created posted.

Other DGPs are T K Rajendran, (chief DGP law and order), SR Jangid (Chief Vigilance Officer, MTC), J K Tripathy, (TNUSRB), C K Gandhirajan, (TNFRS), M S Jaffer Sait (CB-CID), Srilakshmi Prasad (SHRC), Ashuthosh Shukla (Prisons), Mithilesh Kumar Jha (on central deputation), N Tamil Selvan (Technical Services) and Ashish Bengra (Operations).

This will effectively pave way for one of the newly promoted officers to get a chance to head the force because other seniors will not have the minimum tenure of two years which is recommended for empanelment of DGPs as per guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court. With this latest promotion, the government is bringing in a set of officers, who can be made DGP once Rajendran retires in June. The officers who have a longer period of service are M K Jha, Sylendra Babu, Karan Singha and Prateep Philip.

Three of the fifteen, including DGP Rajendran, are due for superannuation later this year. Six other officers will retire before June 2020.