The race has heated up among senior bureaucrats to succeed Chief Secretary Irai Anbu and Police Chief Sylendra Babu.
Published May 19, 2023 | 10:58 AM ⚊ Updated May 19, 2023 | 10:58 AM
The race has heated up among senior bureaucrats to succeed Irai Anbu and Sylendra Babu. (Creative Commons)
A race is on in Tamil Nadu to replace Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu and Director General of Police C Sylendra Babu, who will retire from service on 30 June.
DMK chief MK Stalin had handpicked both the officers for their respective posts soon after swearing in as the chief minister.
According to sources, senior IAS officers Hans Raj Varma, Shivdas Meena, N Muruganandam, Atulya Misra, Phanindra Reddy, Vikram Kapur, SK Prabhakar, and S Krishnan are at the forefront of the race to replace Anbu.
Varma, a 1986-batch officer, is the seniormost in the Tamil Nadu cadre. Currently the chairman and managing director of the Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation (TIIC), Varma does not have a good rapport with Stalin.
His seniority, however, has meant that his name has been included in the list of candidates for the chief secretary’s post.
Meena, also a 1986-batch officer now holding charge as the additional chief secretary in the Municipal Administration Department, tops the list of contenders.
However, Arappor Iyakkam, a non-profit fighting graft, has written to the chief minister accusing Meena of stalling an investigation into charges of corruption against the officials of Chennai and Coimbatore Corporations.
According to a highly placed source in the Secretariat, Stalin is favouring a Tamil Nadu-cadre officer as the chief secretary so that he would be familiar with handling the bureaucracy.
“In that case, Muruganatham, IAS, who was recently appointed as the secretary I to the chief minister, and SK Prabhakar, a 1989-batch officer who hails from Virudhunagar, are the frontrunners,” the source told South First.
Earlier, there were reports that Anbu had applied for a preferential retirement and the chief minister had plans to appoint him as the state’s chief information commissioner (CIC), which has been lying vacant for the past six months. The CIC can hold office for five years.
DGPs Sanjay Arora, and BK Ravi, both 1990-batch officers, Shankar Jiwal, AK Viswanathan, Abhash Kumar, and 1991-batch officer Amaraesh Pujari are in the race to become the state’s top cop.
Arora is the senior-most IPS officer in the Tamil Nadu cadre. However, he is now serving as the Delhi police commissioner on a Union government deputation. Sources said Arora had expressed willingness to be the police chief. However, Jiwal is leading the race.
Sources said, Jiwal, now the commissioner of the Greater Chennai Police, is Stalin’s choice to succeed Babu. Jiwal, who was considered close to former chief minister M Karunanidhi, had been allotted low-profile posts by the previous AIADMK regime for the past 10 years.
Viswanathan, now heading the Tamil Nadu Police Housing Corporation Limited, is unlikely to get the plump post. He was close to the previous AIADMK regime. He had also served as the commissioner of Chennai City Police.
The government has forwarded a list of officers for the approval of the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) and the Union Home Ministry.
According to the process to select a police chief, states should provide a list of DGP-ranked senior IPS officers with 30 years of service. They should also have at least six months of service left before retirement.
Further, a committee of senior officials — two from the UPSC and one each from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the state government — will hold a meeting and shortlist six names, from which the chief minister will select one.
Once selected, the police officer will remain as DGP for two years, regardless of the date of retirement from service.
