BK Sharma To Don The Mantle Of Odisha DGP

Bhubaneswar: IPS Officer Bijay Kumar Sharma will be holding full additional charge as DGP and Head of Police Force (HoPF).

He is currently serving as the Director General, Fire Services; Commandant General, Home Guards, and Director, Civil Defence.

A notification in this regard was issued by the Odisha government on Wednesday.

Notably, Governor Ganeshi Lal had approved the appointment of incumbent DGP, RP Sharma as Lokayukta member on Tuesday.

The 1986-batch IPS officer was slated to superannuate in May 2020. If sources are to be believed, he was no longer keen to continue in the top cop post. He had applied for VRS and was waiting for the government’s go ahead on it. It will also pave way for his joining the new assignment.

Bring the senior-most police officer in the state, B K Sharma was tipped to be the next DGP and this, sources said, was a step towards it.

The delay in his formal appointment as DGP is being attributed to a directive of the Supreme Court which requires the Odisha government to send a list of senior state cadre IPS officers to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). The selection panel of the Commission will shortlist three names and the state government then has to pick one among them as the DGP.

B K Sharma had earlier officiated as DGP in April during a bereavement in RP Sharma’s family. He is due to retire in October 2022.