Prasada Rao named interim DGP of Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh government today appointed B Prasada Rao, an IPS officer of 1979 batch, as the Director General of Police (DGP) on an ad hoc basis following retirement of incumbent V Dinesh Reddy.
Chief Secretary PK Mohanty issued a Government Order (GO) this afternoon placing Prasada Rao in "full additional charge" of the DGP's post "until further orders".
Though it was expected that Prasada Rao would be appointed as the regular DGP (Head of Police Force) in place of Dinesh Reddy, the government chose to make an interim arrangement to follow the "prescribed procedure" of referring a panel of names to Union Public Service Commission for making the final choice, official sources said.

"This is to avoid any legal tangle, as it happened in previous cases," sources maintained.
The State Government will now forward names of eligible DGP-rank IPS officers to the UPSC from which one will be eventually appointed as the HoPF, according to sources.
"It's now a mere formality before Prasada Rao would be appointed as the regular DGP in next few days," they added.

Prasada Rao, a non-controversial officer, is currently the Director General of state Anti-Corruption Bureau.
He previously served as the Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of AP State Road Transport Corporation and Commissioner of Police of Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam.

He is currently pursuing research in Physics.
Though fourth in the order of seniority among his batchmates, Prasada Rao has reportedly been chosen by the Chief Minister as the former is a dalit.
"It's after a gap of many years that we will have a dalit as top cop in the state," government sources said.