State authorities mull over posting DCs instead of DMs

LUCKNOW : With the police commissionerate system brought into effect in entirety in Lucknow, Kanpur and Varanasi, top authorities have started mulling over posting district collectors (DCs) in these districts instead of district magistrates (DMs).

They are also considering transfer of powers under some crucial provisions, including Arms Act, to police officials after already giving them magisterial powers. So far, DMs had powers under these provisions even after partial implementation of the commissionerate system in Lucknow, Kanpur and Varanasi as the entire districts were not included in the commissionerate and rural areas were treated as normal district, directly under the DMs.

However, the entire Gautam Buddh Nagar district was under police commissionerate since the implementation of this system in UP in January 2020, but the DM’s post still exists there.

A senior government official said authorities are mulling over posting of district collectors, instead of DMs, in these four districts as the state government gave a nod to the inclusion of rural areas of Lucknow, Kanpur and Varanasi into the police commissionerate on November 3. He said this new jurisdiction under the new police commissionerate system in Lucknow, Kanpur and Varanasi was brought into effect from Monday night.

The DCs in these districts were likely to do work related to revenue collection, protocol rather than having multiple powers, as in the past, like final decision over law and order situation, powers of issuing arms license under Arms Act and other magisterial powers.

On November 3, the UP cabinet had approved inclusion of all police stations of Lucknow, Varanasi and Kanpur districts into the police commissionerate to bring uniformity across districts. Earlier, six police stations of Lucknow, 12 of Varanasi and 14 of Kanpur were kept out of the purview of police commissioners and were treated as separate police districts.