While the stage is set to bid farewell to Director General of Police OP Singh on his retirement on Friday (January 31), the state government is yet to decide his successor, giving rise to the possibility of the state police chief getting extension for three months.
Interestingly, Singh has scotched rumours about his extension, saying that he would retire by the month-end.
However, sources said that for the rare achievement of putting in place the police commissionerate system in UP, Singh could be rewarded with a 3-month extension by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The sources also said that Yogi may also accept Singh’s other proposal of posting a senior IPS officer as principal secretary (home).
An IPS officer is already serving as a secretary (home) but after the introduction of police commissionerate system, Yogi is likely to post an IPS officer as principal secretary (home).
However, the Home department would still be headed by an IAS officer serving as additional chief secretary (home).
The possibility of Singh’s extension was still alive as earlier during Samajwadi Party’s regime, then DGP Arvind Jain had attended the ceremonial farewell parade at the Reserve Police Lines on his retirement in the morning of his last working day but by the evening, before the traditional tea party at DGP’s residence, he was given a three-month extension.
Meanwhile, the UP government, which earlier sent a panel of five IPS officers to UPSC for selecting Singh’s successor, has now sent the names of all DG-rank officers posted in the state or on Central deputation.
Not only this, the names of three officers, who will be promoted to DG rank after retirement of Singh and DG (Intelligence) Bhawesh Kumar Singh, DG (Special Enquiry) Mahendra Modi,  were also sent to the UPSC.
The move to send all the names was  taken by the government after DG Jawaharlal Tripathi filed a writ challenging non-inclusion of his name in the list despite him being one of the top three senior-most IPS officers posted in the state.
While speculations are rife on Singh’s successor, the outgoing DGP is likely to be appointed as the new chief information commissioner of UP post retirement.