RTI reveals no request from AP on DGP Sambasiva Rao

Vijayawada: 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.