Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
The State Home Department in Maharashtra is gearing up for a significant overhaul of its top police leadership, including the position of Director General of Police (DGP) and Police Commissioners of Nagpur and Thane. The impending retirement of the current DGP, Rajnish Seth, on December 31 has prompted the department to commence the process of selecting his successor.A top rank official said that several prominent names have emerged as contenders for the esteemed position of State DGP. The frontrunner is Senior IPS Officer Rashmi Shukla, who currently serves as the Director General (DG) of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar is also a strong candidate for the role. Other notable contenders include Thane CP Jaijeet Singh, DG ATS Sadanand Date, DG Police Housing Sandeep Bishnoi, DG Railway Pradnya Sarvade, Additional Director of NIA Atulchandra Kulkarni, and DG State Security Corporation Bipin Kumar Singh, he said.
He further stated that the State Home Department will forward the names of potential candidates for the DGP post to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which will then shortlist three officers in accordance with established norms. From this shortlist, the Maharashtra government will choose the next DGP.
Another official said that Rashmi Shukla’s name has gained prominence as a leading contender for the position of DGP, particularly after the Special Court accepted the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) closure report related to the disclosure of a confidential report on police transfers in Maharashtra. Shukla, a 1988-batch IPS officer of the Maharashtra cadre, holds seniority over both the current DGP, Rajnish Seth, and the other contenders. If appointed as the DGP, Shukla, whose current retirement date is June 2024, could serve an extended two-year term, effectively pushing back her retirement, he said.
In the event that Vivek Phansalkar is appointed as DGP, it is expected to trigger a chain of leadership changes. This would likely lead to the appointment of the current Special Commissioner, Deven Bharti, as the Commissioner of Police (CP) for Mumbai or other officers, he claimed.
Changes afoot in Nagpur and Thane
The Police Commissioners of Nagpur, Amitesh Kumar, and Thane, Jaijeet Singh, have completed their tenures and are due for transfers. The State Home Department is yet to finalize their replacements, and sources suggest that competition for the position of Thane CP is particularly fierce, an official, privy to the developement, said.
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