Team News Riveting
Chandigarh, September 22
Considering caste equations while appointing political head is a common practice but selecting the head of police force on the basis is something surreal.
The newly anointed Charanjit Channi government in Punjab is literally mooting a proposal to appoint the new Director General of Police (DGP) on caste basis. And the names had been sent to the Congress high command to put its stamp.
Soon after taking over as the Chief Minister of Punjab three days ago, Charanjit Channi held a series of meetings with senior Congress leaders over selection of the new police chief and a rejig in the administration. In the first reshuffle, Punjab government has swapped Commissioners of Police of Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar. Naunihal Singh is CP Jalandhar, Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill is CP Amritsar and Gurpreet Singh Bhullar is CP Ludhiana.
But the real task is to select the state police chief. Sources said that Channi wanted Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota to be appointed as the DGP. The Congress organisation has put it under the scanner to balance the caste equation.
Sahota belongs to the scheduled caste community and the Chief Minister has already appointed Hussan Lal, an IAS official from the same caste, as his principal secretary. Channi belongs to Dalit community and the ruling party has reservations that the top hierarchy in the administration shall not be dominated by any one caste.
The names of 1986 batch IPS officer Sidharth Chattopadhyaya, 1987 batch officer VK Bhawra and 1988 batch officer Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota are doing the rounds. The trio have more than six months of service left making them eligible for the post.
However, the final call on who will be the next DGP of Punjab will be taken by Rahul Gandhi, Congress sources said.
