Sivanandhan may get extension as police chief

D Sivanandhan may get a three-month extension as city police commissioner, though he is due for promotion as director general in January, reports Debasish Panigrahi.

D Sivanandhan may get a three-month extension as city police commissioner, though he is due for promotion as director general in January.

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State Home Department sources told Hindustan Times on Monday that Sivanandhan’s promotion may be delayed as the government is reluctant to allow Jayant Umranikar to retire as Director General of Police, Special Operations, on December 31.

Umranikar, a seasoned officer with long experience in the country’s premier intelligence agencies, has been spearheading the state police’s anti-Naxalite operations.

If he retires before the launch of the proposed joint anti-naxalite operation of the state police and central paramilitary forces, co-ordination among the various agencies could suffer.

“He [Umranikar] has drawn up a certain warfare strategy and raised an intricate informant channel before the proposed operation. Much ground work has already been done so far, though we are waiting for the Union Home Department’s nod for the actual ground assault,” sources said.

If Umranikar gets an extension, there will no vacancy of Director General of Police in the state.

The other two DG posts — as heads of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and the Maharashtra Police Housing Corporation — are occupied by A.N. Roy and Hasan Gafoor.

Roy also holds additional charge as state police chief.

Sivanandhan and another additional director general of police, P.P. Srivastava, are due for promotion.

Meanwhile, the additional chief secretary (home), Chandra Iyengar, told Hindustan Times that decisions on postings and promotions at the highest levels of the state police administration were the government’s prerogative.

Asked if there were plans to give an extension to Umranikar, Iyengar said, “as per the all India service rules, very few officers are eligible for that [extension].”