Salary scale of 2,05,400--2,24,400; allowance of about half a lakh; State list to be submitted to Centre next month

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Six IPS officers with 30 years of service are under consideration to become the next police chief. The government will submit their list to the Centre by April 15.

A committee headed by the UPSC chairman and comprising the chief of one of the central forces, the Union Home Secretary, the state chief secretary and the DGP will prepare a three-member shortlist. A meeting will be held at the end of May for this. The list will then be submitted to the state. The state government can appoint one of them as the police chief. The term of the current chief, Shekhdarvesh Sahib, ends on June 30.

The state's six-member list is based on seniority. However, the UPSC's three-member list is prepared considering seniority, good performance and character. There are people who put pressure on the Centre in various ways to get into the three-member list.

Nitin Agarwal, who was sent back to Kerala by the Centre while serving as BSF chief for failing to prevent infiltration along the Pakistan border, is the first on the list. He will be considered as he is not facing a departmental inquiry.

Two of the six-member list are in central service. Suresh Rajpurohit is in SPG and Ravada Chandrasekhar is in IB. Both have expressed their willingness to return to Kerala if made the police chief.

The sixth, MR. Ajithkumar, has vigilance and crime branch investigations against him. Only those with at least six months of service remaining should be made the police chief. A two-year term should be ensured. If there are no people with 30 years of service, ADGPs with 25 years of service will also be considered. This problem does not exist for Kerala.

Six-member list and service period

Nitin Agarwal------------July 2026

Ravada Chandrasekhar------------July 2026

Yogesh Gupta------------April 2030

Manoj Abraham------------June 2031

S Suresh----------------------April 2027

M.R. Ajitkumar------January 2028

Tachankari fails to make it to the top three

DGP Tomin Thachankari, a confidant of the Pinarayi government, could not make it to the final list despite his seniority. He faced setbacks due to vigilance cases. He retired as the Director of Investigation of the Human Rights Commission.

DGP's salary scale: 2,05,400--2,24,400 (plus an allowance of about half a lakh)