The Union Ministry of Home Affairs sent a letter to state government of Punjab and questioned them on why they are continuing with acting DGP for last 8 months. In the letter MHA sought answers from state over not sending IPS officers’ panel to UPSC for DGP selection and not having permanent DGP for the state to maintain law & order.
Let it be noted that after VK Bhawra going on Central Deputation, IPS Gaurav Yadav was appointed as the acting DGP of state in July 2022 and since then no permanent DGP has been elected for Punjab. And, as soon as the current DGP leaves from the position an acting DGP is appointed. After which a panel of IPS officers is sent to UPSC for selection of permanent DGP of the state. UPSC then sends three top names and state is free to choose one from that list.
However, it’s been 8 months but still UPSC has not received any panel from Punjab government regarding appointment of DGP. According to sources, state government is not in position to send the panel to UPSC due to seniority rank of DGP Yadav. Punjab Government is inclined to have IPS Gaurav Yadav as state DGP however, it is unlikely that UPSC will approve it. There are 8 more senior officers who can be selected for the post which include Raw Chief Samant Kumar Goel(1984 batch), DGP-NIA Dinkar Gupta(1987 batch), Parag Jain(1989 batch), Harpreet Singh Sidhu(1992 batch), Prabodh Kumar(1988 batch) Sanjeev Kalra(1989 batch) , Sharad Satya Chauhan(1992 batch). Most of them are already on Central Deputation yet there are 3 officers above him who could be the next permanent DGP of Punjab.
