GUWAHATI, Dec 31 � Jayanta Narayan Choudhury, a 1978 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, has been appointed as the next Director General of Assam Police. Choudhury will replace Sankar Baruah, who retired today.
However, Choudhury will be joining as DG of Assam Police only after a few days as he is yet to be released by the Government of India. Rajendra Prasad, the DG of Civil Defence and Home Guards, will be the acting DG of Assam Police till Choudhury takes up his new assignment.
Choudhury has been working with the Intelligence
Bureau (IB) for the last 26 years and his last posting in the Assam Police was way back in the early 1980s when he was Superintendent of Police of Lakhimpur district.
Talking to The Assam Tribune, Choudhury, who is presently working as Additional Director of the IB in Kolkata, said that he would require a few days to join his new assignment. The Assam Government will have to first write to the Centre with the request to release Choudhury and he can join as DG of the Assam Police only after he is released from the IB. He also said that he would have to wind up his works in Kolkata before leaving the IB.
Replying to a question on his priorities as the head of the state police force, Choudhury said that first he would have to get the political guidelines. He spoke to the Chief Minister this morning, but it was a courtesy call and the details of the functioning of the police force have not been discussed.
Choudhury admitted that he has been away from the state for a long time and after receiving the guidelines from the Government, he would talk to the police officers who have been working in the state for a long time to get first hand information about the situation in the state before finalizing his priorities.
The newly appointed DG said that he would also talk to opinion makers and cross sections of people of Assam. He expressed the view that he would only be a �cog in the police machine� and work for the welfare of the state. �There have been lots of optimism for the state of late and I shall try to do my best for the welfare of the state,� he added.
Though Choudhury has been working with the IB for 26 years, he was in touch with Assam situation as he had served as Deputy Director of the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB), Guwahati and again served in Shillong as an officer of the Bureau. He was also posted in the USA for a period of three years.
