The Bihar government on Sunday appointed 1990- batch IPS officer Rajwinder Singh Bhatti as the next director-general of police (DGP), signalling its intentions to crack the whip on rising crime and the deteriorating law-andorder situation in the state.

Bhatti, a native of Punjab, is currently posted as the additional director-general at the eastern command of the Border Security Force (BSF). He will take over responsibilities from the outgoing DGP S.K. Singhal on December 19.

State home department’s additional chief secretary Chaitanya Prasad issued a notification in this regard, putting to rest the speculations about chief minister Nitish Kumar’s choice of the police chief. The government chose Bhatti over five IPS officers senior to him.

At present, the state has 11 officers in the rank of director general and they all were in the race till the Union Public Service Commission recommended three of them, including Bhatti, for the top job.

Though a Supreme Court judgment provides tenure of at least two years to the DGPs, Bhatti will superannuate in September 2025.

Considered a strict and upright officer, Bhatti played a stellar role in the arrest of the then Bihar don–turned–politician Muhammad Shahabuddin in 2005, as well as, former muscleman–cum–Lok Sabha member Prabhunath Singh and Dilip Kumar Singh. He has also worked as a joint director in the CBI.

The new DGP will have his task cut out with rampant murders, brazen robberies, frequent bank loot, a high rate of crimes against women, mushrooming gangs, and fast-spreading gun culture in Bihar. The common people are also afraid of chain and money snatchers ravaging the state.

It will be interesting to see how Bhatti balances the policing work with enforcing prohibition and taming the very powerful liquor and sand mafia. The police in the state have slipped into the quagmire of the liquor ban, which has been consuming most of their time and energy without much tangible result on the ground.