"Odisha has resumed the process of appointing a Director General of Police (DGP) and has announced a list of five candidates for consideration."
Arpit Pattnaik
After experiencing several delays, the process to appoint the new Director General of Police (DGP) has resumed in Odisha. The State Police Headquarters has requested three DG-ranked officers, Arun Kumar Ray (1988 batch), SM Narvane (1989), and YB Khurania (1990), to submit their biodata as part of the selection procedure.
The letter, issued on August 4, pertained to 'furnishing proposal for convening the Empanelment Committee meeting for the selection of the DGP (Head of Police Force) of Odisha.' While this generated confusion among former officers regarding the rationale behind seeking the biodata of just these three officers for the empanelment, official sources clarified that it was a routine procedure. It was revealed that these three officers had missed filling certain details like their academic achievements when their names were sent for the empanelment committee last year.
Prior sources revealed that the previous government had not addressed certain clarifications raised by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) after sending seven names for empanelment, leading to an incomplete process. As a result, it appointed 1990 batch IPS officer Arun Kumar Sarangi as the acting DGP, and he continued in this role through the general elections.
The current process seeks to update information about officers eligible and in the zone of consideration, as the UPSC has already received a list. This means there will be a total of five DG-ranked officers on the new empanelment list for consideration, including DG Fire Services Sudhanshu Sarangi and acting DGP Arun Kumar Sarangi.
From the previous list of seven, 1989-batch officer AM Prasad will not be included, as he has moved on central deputation as special DG, CRPF. Additionally, his batchmate B Radhika took voluntary retirement earlier in January.
The Odisha government needs to obtain consent from the IPS officer of the state cadre who is on central deputation before sending their name to the UPSC for the selection of the DGP's post.
