Senior IPS officer M A Ganapathy, who hails from Karnataka, has taken over as the new Director General of Police in Uttarakhand.

The 53-year-old officer, who is from Kodagu, succeeded B S Sidhu who retired on Saturday.

The raging forest fire in Uttarakhand forests will be one of the first tests for the officer to ensure better coordination between several agencies in the state under President’s Rule to douse it.

The 1986-batch officer of the Uttarakhand cadre was on central deputation for the past six years and was holding portfolios like Internal Security and Left Wing Extremism in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

He also served as spokesperson of MHA.

Ganapathy was relieved from central deputation on April 13.

After his post-graduation from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), he had joined the IPS in 1986 in Uttar Pradesh.

After the bifurcation of UP, he was shifted to Uttarakhand cadre. During his 30 years of service, Ganapathy has served as Superintendent of Police at Moradabad City, Sonebhadra and Hardoi and as Senior Superintendent of Police at Nainital, Meerut and Kanpur.

He also served in the CBI from 1999 as Superintendent of Police and promoted as Deputy Inspector General (Anti-Corruption).

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> National / DHNS – New Delhi – May 02nd, 2016