New Delhi, Feb 27 (IANS): Who will be the new Delhi Police chief after Amulya Patnaik demits office on February 29? This question is more or less settled after senior IPS officer S.N. Srivastava was appointed Special Commissioner (Law and Order) of Police in Delhi.

Srivastava is the senior-most officer of the AGMUT cadre and a batchmate of serving Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik, who was given a one month extension for the Delhi Assembly elections and will retire in the next three days.

The 1985-batch officer was given the charge of special commissioner at a time when the national capital faces a grave law and order situation, after large scale violence swept across northeast Delhi which claimed at least 33 lives and injured over 200 persons.

Srivastava, known for being a hard taskmaster with a no nonsense approach, toured the riot affected areas immediately after taking over as special commissioner and eventually brought peace to the area.

However, there are other senior police officers in line after Patnaik on a seniority basis which include Ajay Kashyap and Prabhat Singh, but the moment Srivastava was made special commissioner, the issue of who will handle the Delhi Police was also settled.

As there is no other claimant for the top job, it seems the moment for taking over Delhi Police has arrived for Srivastava.