No extension to DGP Prashant Kumar , Rajiv Krishna is now Top Cop of UP

Rajiv Krishna , an Indian Police Service officer of 1991 batch , is now the new police chief of Uttar Pradesh. He took charge of the new assignment on Saturday late evening . Rajiv Krishna will be the acting DGP as was his predecessor Prashant Kumar, an officer of 1990 batch. IPS Prashant Kumar headed the State Police force as acting DGP for one and a half years.

Yogi Adityanath led Uttar Pradesh government had  asked for the extension in service of the IPS Prashant Kumar and was positive about that but it was not approved by the centre. Since it was the last day of Mr. Kumar’s tenure , the state government had no option but to appoint another officer as DGP at the eleventh hour.

According to the Supreme Court guidelines , the State Government is supposed to send names of the eligible officers to the Union Public Service Commission for posting as a full-time Director General of Police. The Uttar Pradesh government has not been sending the list of names of police officers eligible for the post of Director General to UPSC or the Central Government for the last 3 years. In such a situation, Rajiv Krishna is the fifth officer to be made the acting Director General of Police in UP.

Who is IPS Rajiv Krishna: 
Rajiv Krishna is a 1991 batch officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre of the Indian Police Service. Till now, he was handling the responsibility of Director Vigilance along with the Chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Police Recruitment and Promotion Board. Rajiv Krishna has been given the command of Uttar Pradesh Police by superseding many IPS officers. The number of such officers is said to be above 10.

Originally a resident of Gautam Buddha Nagar, Rajiv Krishna has done engineering in Electronics and Communication. He has also received the President’s Gallantry Award twice. According to his date of birth, he still has more than four years to serve.Hence, he can remain the DGP of Uttar Pradesh for a long time.

Assumed the chair at night:
Speculations about the extension of Prashant Kumar continued throughout the day  till the announcement about the appointment of  Rajiv Krishna as DGP was made public around 8 pm on Saturday. Rajiv Krishna took over the charge of DGP at 9 pm . Prashant Kumar handed over the chair to him.

These officers were superseded:
Shafi Ahsan Rizvi, Ashish Gupta, Aditya Mishra of the year 1989 batch, Sandeep Salunke, Daljit Singh Chaudhary, Renuka Mishra, Bijay Kumar Maurya, MK Bashal, Tilottama Verma of the year 1990 batch, Alok Sharma and Piyush Anand of the year 1991 batch are the names whose seniority was ignored while appointing Rajiv Krishna as the DGP in UP.

Acting DGP for the fifth time in a row:
Rajiv Krishna is the fifth acting DGP of the state. Before him, DS Chauhan, RK Vishwakarma, Vijay Kumar, Prashant Kumar were made acting DGPs.