With the decks cleared for their appointment on Friday, K Shanmugam IAS and JK Tripathy IPS are set to take over as Chief Secretary and Director General of Police respectively for Tamil Nadu on Sunday. Issuing transfer orders to her successor, outgoing Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan notified that she was retiring on Sunday post noon. K Shanmugam, presently posted as Additional Chief Secretary to Government, Finance Department, is expected to take over in the afternoon.
Following a meeting of the Empanelment Committee of the Union Public Service Commission and its recommendation, the state government has appointed JK Tripathy as Director General of Police and Head of Police Force.
Both chiefs are from the 1985 batch of the Indian Administrative Services and Indian Police Services, respectively. During his nine-year-long stint at the Finance Department, K Shanmugam was appointed Director of Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited. In addition to serving as Collector of Sivaganga and Pudukkottai district early in his career, he also headed the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation.
Outgoing Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan is the second longest-serving woman chief secretary after Lakshmi Pranesh. She had served as Secretary to several departments including Health and Civil Supplies. In recent years, however, Girija Vaidyanathan has come under fire for a number of police decisions including the two-year delay in conducting local body polls as well as the rehabilitation in the wake of Cyclone Gaja.
JK Tripathy has previously served as Commissioner of Police for Chennai two times. Tripathy, who is also expected to take over on Sunday, currently occupies the office of the Chairman of the Uniformed Service Recruitment Board (DGP). He had also served as Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order).
Tripathy’s appointment however comes a day after 61 IPS officers in the state were transferred and /or promoted by outgoing DGP TK Rajendran. Rajendran leaves behind a scandal-marred legacy with several instances of police high-handedness in recent years. He was also raided in connection with the multi-crore Gutkha scam that rocked the state in 2017.