1983 batch IPS officer Shivanand Jha is new Gujarat DGP

Shivanand Jha, a 1983 batch Indian Police Service officer, was today appointed as the new Director General of Police (DGP) of Gujarat through a notification issued by the state home department today.
"The government is pleased to appoint Shivanand Jha, IPS (GJ-1983) on a vacant post of DGP," the notification said.
With this, Jha will be be the first full-time DGP to be appointed in the state since April 15, 2016, when the incumbent P C Thakur was transferred and replaced by an in-charge DGP P P Pandey.
Jha, who was heading the CID (Intelligence) as its DGP, was appointed to the top post after in-charge DGP Pramod Kumar retired. Kumar himself followed another in-charge DGP, Geeta Johri, who retired after serving on the post for a month.

A petition in the Supreme Court by former state DGP Julio Ribeiro had led to the state government revoking the appointment of Pandey, following which Johri was appointed in November last year.
Jha was also a member of the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the 2002 riots and served as the police commissioner of Ahmedabad and Surat.

Spelling out his priorities, Jha told reporters that his focus would be on the safety of women, improvement in the prevention and detection of crime and resolution of issues regarding the promotions of the constabulary.
"This is your (people's) department, and I will work for you, and will remain at your service 24 hours," Jha said.

"We will take special care of women. We will remove our faults and will try to serve you better. We expect help from the people and media," he said.
"Our focus will also be on the preventive and detection of crime. We will also resolve the issues of promotion of constables and head constables," he said.