Punjab DGP selection: UPSC calls meeting on December 21

The much-awaited meeting of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for the appointment of a regular Punjab director general of police (DGP) will be finally held on December 21 in New Delhi.

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According to an official communication received by the Punjab government from the UPSC, the meeting will be held at 10.30am in the national capital for the selection of the three officers among the 10 senior Indian Police Service officers shortlisted by Punjab.

The state government had sent the names of the shortlisted IPS officers on September 30, a few days after chief minister the Charanjit Singh Channi-led dispensation took over and removed 1987-batch IPS officer Dinkar Gupta as Punjab Police chief.

Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota, a 1988-batch IPS officer, has been officiating as the DGP since then.

Bone of contention between Channi, Sidhu

From Punjab, the chief secretary will also be part of the meeting with the UPSC panel and because Sahota, himself is a contender for the post, he won’t be attending the meeting. Otherwise, the incumbent DGP is also expected to take part in the meeting with the UPSC to shortlist the candidates.

After this meeting, the UPSC will select three candidates and send this panel to the Punjab government to select one from them to appoint as regular DGP.

The appointment of the Punjab DGP has remained a contentious issue in poll-bound Punjab between chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Punjab Committee president Navjot Singh Sidhu.

It is learnt that Sidhu is keen on S Chattopadhyaya taking over as the DGP. A 1986-batch IPS officer, he is the seniormost among the names sent in the panel. However, with Chattopadhyaya, who had challenged the appointment of Gupta as regular DGP during former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s tenure losing the case in the Supreme Court of India, it would be interesting to see if the UPSC considers him for the post or not.

Why Sidhu is opposed to acting DGP Sahota

Sidhu had criticised Channi’s move to appoint Sahota as regular DGP citing that as head of the Bureau of Investigation (BoI) he had conducted a probe at the time of the Bargari sacrilege during the SAD-BJP government’s tenure in which he had termed the act of sacrilege as the handiwork of foreign handlers and two local youngsters.

The main contenders for the top job are officiating DGP Sahota and 1987-batch IPS officer VK Bhawra.

The other names on the list are MK Tiwari (1987 batch), Prabodh Kumar and Rohit Chaudhary (both 1988 batch), Sanjeev Kalra and Parag Jain (1989 batch) and BK Uppal (1991 batch).