V K Bhawra made Punjab’s new DGP

Hours before the annoucement of the dates for the assemebly election by the ECI, the Punjab government apoointed Viresh Kumar Bhawra as new DGP of the state police. Bhawra, who was the DGP of Punjab Home Guards, replaced officiating DGP Siddharth Chattopadhyaya. The Charanjit Singh Channi government selected the 1987 batch officer Bhawra out of a panel of three officers shortlisted by the Union Public Service Commission. The other two officers in the panel were senior IPS officers Dinkar Gupta and Prabodh Kumar. Bhawra term shall be for a minimum period of two years from the date of assumption of office, the state government order said.

Punjab got its third DGP in a span of three months. After Charanjit Singh Channi took over as the new chief minister last September, the 1988-batch IPS officer Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota was appointed as the officiating DGP replacing Dinkar Gupta who was the state police chief when Amarinder Singh was the chief minister.But Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu was against the appointment of Sahota. Later after facing pressure from Sidhu, the state government had appointed 1986-batch IPS officer Siddharth Chattopadhyaya as officiating DGP until a regular DGP is appointed out of a panel of three IPS officers shortlisted by the UPSC.

Meanwhile, the Punjab government on Saturday transferred seven IPS officers including Senior Superintendent of Police, Ferozepur. IPS officer Harmandeep Singh Hans, SSP Ferozepur, has been posted as Commandant 3rd IRB, Ludhiana. Narinder Bhargav will be the new SSP Ferozepur.. Other police officers who have been transferred are Naunihal Singh who has been appointed as Commissioner of Police, Jalandhar. AK Mittal has been posted as Inspector General of Police, Roopnagar, while Sukhchain Singh has been posted as Amritsar Commissioner. Nanak Singh has been appointed as SSP Gurdaspur and Alka Meena will be SSP Barnala. Two PPS officers Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh and Kuljit Singh have been given new additional and new posting orders.