The government appointed Anil Kant as the new Kerala police chief after the present incumbent Loknath Behera is set to retire on Wednesday after a 36-year-old career. Anil Kanth, IPS, will head the 50,000-strong Kerala police force. The Council of Ministers chose Anil Kanth as the Director General of Police from a list of three names forwarded by a Union Public Service Commission panel. Others in the shortlist were IPS officer Sudesh Kumar and B Sandhya.
Anil Kanth, an Additional Director General of Police, is the incumbent Road Safety Commissioner. He belongs to the 1988 batch of IPS recruits. The cabinet which met on Wednesday approved the name of Anil Kant as the new DGP. The new police chief will have a fixed tenure of 2 years. Anil Kant has only 7 months of service but he may get an extension in term. For a long time, police chiefs were selected by state governments. This pattern has changed with the intervention of the Supreme Court. Anil Kant, who succeeds DGP Loknath Behera, will be the first Kerala police chief to be selected from the list recommended by the UPSC committee. During the UPSC meeting held in New Delhi, a list of 12 senior IPS officers from Kerala cadre was discussed. Chief Secretary V P Joy and Behera represented the state in the meeting.
As per the new protocol laid down by the Supreme Court, the state government will have to form a panel to handpick an officer from the UPSC shortlist. The new state police chief will have a fixed tenure of two years and even if he superannuates in between, service will be extended for the remaining months.
