Deccan Chronicle: Vijayawada: Thursday, September 14, 2017.
The episode
of regularising and continuing the services of in-charge DGP Mr N. Sambasiva
Rao is back to square one.
The Union
Ministry of Home Affairs (MoH) has stated that it did not receive any proposal
from the GoAP over the regularisation of services of the in-charge DGP.
The MoH
provided this information in reply to an RTI query. The CM has assured about
regularising the services of Mr Rao in June and stated that the state
government had written a letter to the Centre.
Deputy
Secretary (Police) and CPIO, RTI Act, Mr S.K. Rastogi, of the Ministry of Home
Affairs (MoH), in reply to an RTI query on September 1, stated: “No proposal
has been received by this division from the GoAP with regard to the extension
of the tenure of in-charge DGP Mr N. Sambasiva Rao.”
In fact, the
RTI application addressed to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT)
has been transferred to the MoH by the DoPT, requesting to furnish the
requisite information under the RTI Act. The general procedure is that the
state government, in such cases, would send proposals to the UPSC, DoPT, MoH
and Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), with three names. Since the DoPT is not
in receipt of the proposal, it does not have the information, and hence it has
forwarded the RTI application to the MoH, for providing the information to the
RTI applicant.
Mr Sambasiva
Rao is due for retirement on December 31 and the GoAP has to get the clearance
from the UPSC, MoH and CVC before he retires, said a bureaucrat working with
the Secretariat.
By this time,
the state government should have completed this exercise, he felt, and added
that even now if the government is firm on continuing and regularising his
services, it can send across the proposals and follow-up the issue in a speedy
way.
Sawang,
Thakur are front runners
While in-charge DGP Nanduri Sambasiva Rao’s tenure
is to be completed by December, this year, names of contenders for the said
position are being discussed in the Secretariat. Even ministers are eager to
know as to who would be the next DGP, in case Mr Sambasiva Rao’s services are
not continued.
If loyalty
and timing matters, the CM’s choice will be either Gautam Sawang or R.P.
Thakur, and if the CM wants to be tough on law and order, his choice would be
N.V. Surendrababu of 1987 batch, a minister said.
However, the
CM would take a formal approval from the UPSC, before finalising the person who
will lead the police in 2019, he added.
On July 20,
last year, the Andhra Pradesh government had promoted five Indian Police
Service (IPS) officers to the rank of Director General of Police. Among which
M. Malakondaiah of 1985 batch was promoted to the rank of DGP and retained as
the Director-General of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). Later, he was posted
as VC and MD, APSRTC. Ram Prawesh Thakur of the 1986 batch was promoted and
later, he became Director General of Police (ACB). Damodar Gautam Sawang of the
same batch was promoted and retained as Commissioner of Police, Vijayawada
city.
R.P. Thakur
is striving hard to prove his mettle by organising ACB raids extensively and
creating a panic among the corrupt officials, irrespective of their ranks.
When it comes
to Gautam Sawang, he is known for his cool policing and highly result-oriented
techniques. By his calm nature, he has already drawn the attention of the CMO
towards himself and stands first in the line, according to a senior bureaucrat.
Sawang’s
working style is being closely monitored by the CMO, as he is an IPS officer
who maintains perfect liaison with the bureaucrats concerned. He involves
himself in all public awareness campaigns, which shows his leadership
qualities, said a senior bureaucrat of the CMO, who added that Gautam Sawang
knows where to lower his head, which is more important than where to raise it.
However, R.P.
Thakur’s aggressive performance in the ACB also would be taken into
consideration by the CM, said an official of CMO, and added that all this would
happen only if CM wants to drop the idea of continuing and regularising the
services of in-charge DGP Mr N. Sambasiva Rao.
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