Senior bureaucrat and 1992 IPS officer Harish Kumar Gupta will be the next Director General of Police for Andhra Pradesh. He will assume charge of the new post on February 1st as incumbent Dwaraka Tirumala Rao will retire on superannuation this month end. Harish Kumar Gupta served as the DGP by the Election Commission for a brief period during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls when KV Rajendranath Reddy was transferred in May this year . He was later replaced by Rao after the TDP-led NDA government assumed charge.
Harish Kumar Gupta is currently holding the post of Director General, Vigilance and Enforcement, and Ex-officio Principal Secretary to the government. The orders for his ascension to the post of DGP were released yesterday evening by Chief Secretary K Vijayanand. The announcement came after the High Court of Andhra Pradesh dismissed a PIL relating to the appointment of DGP was filed against the government of Andhra Pradesh for not following the due procedure as directed by the Supreme Court and UPSC.
Prior to the appointment of DGP, the government should prepare a panel of eligible candidates and send it to UPSC with recommendations. The UPSC will then suggest a panel with three eligible officers from which the government is at freedom to pick of one them for the apex post. However, the government of AP is not following the same and selecting DGPs by ignoring the seniority and other conditions.
IPS officers like Madireddy Pratap, PSR Anjaneyulu and KV Rajendranath Reddy are seniors to Harish Kumar Gupta. However, the NDA government decided to go ahead with Harish Kumar Gupta, a native of Jammu and Kashmir. He has close connections with major top leaders of BJP and this might be the reason for his selection to the coveted post. He will serve as DGP for another seven months with a possibility of extension if the government wishes to do so.
Rao has been re-employed as the vice-chairman and managing director of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transportation Corporation (APSRTC) for a period of one year starting February 1.
