Assam Director General of Police Kuladhar Saikia was set to retire on Saturday

The government on Friday gave a three-month extension to Assam Director General of Police Kuladhar Saikia, an official order said, a day before the publication of the final list of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state.

The 1985-batch IPS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, also a well-known short story writer and a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi award, was set to retire on Saturday.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the proposal of Ministry of Home Affairs for extension in service of Saikia for a period of three months beyond his superannuation on August 31 as a special case in public interest, according to the order.

The Assam government had appointed him as the Director General of Police of the state in April 2018.

Mr Saikia, a Ph.D from IIT-Guwahati, has 20 published short story collections under his credit.

He got the Sahitya Akademi award for his Assamese short story collection, "Akashar Chhabi Aru Anyanya Galpa", in 2015.

The final list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be published on Saturday.