Q.13) Account for the present location of irons and steel industries away from the source of raw material, by giving examples.(UPSC CSE 2020)(150 words,10-marks) Read More » September 21, 2024
The transfer of civil servants remains one of the most important issues ailing Indian civil services. It is more seen as punishment rather than reward. It is known by different names like garage postings, suitcase officers, ‘Kala Pani’ and punishment posting. There are some officers who have been transferred more than 50 times. IAS officer Ashok Khemka, for instance, has been transferred 52 times in 33 years of his service. IPS officer D Roopa, who has been transferred at least 42 times in 20 years of her career, reportedly for standing up to corruption. India has many such ‘Kala Pani’ postings that are not limited to the Northeast alone. States such as Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, Kerala in east, central and south India respectively have many forested and under-developed regions where officers are routinely transferred as a way to teach them a lesson. Little has changed over the years, but the ambiguity over how postings are assigned came to the fore when the Ministry of Home Affairs recently transferred two IAS officers, a husband and wife, after a media report claimed they shut down a stadium early to walk their dog. The government did not initiate an inquiry into the allegation, but hours after the report was published, followed by social media outrage, the husband and wife were separated and given different postings. Senior IAS officer Sanjeev Khirwar was transferred to Ladakh, and his wife Rinku Dugga sent to Arunachal Pradesh. Both these postings are part of the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory) cadre of IAS, and both the officers belong to this cadre. Any officer under the AGMUT cadre can be posted in the northeastern states or to the Union territories. However, the transfers were made out to be punishments, which in turn triggered outrage. Even though there is an appointments committee at the Centre and committees under the chief minister’s office in the states, but still postings are assigned as per the whims of the ruling dispensation to put an officer in place. The process of transfers, removals and postings without any set rules is generally seen as a ‘shake up’, but it cuts both ways. To penalise an officer, governments often send them to a remote or less developed region to teach them a lesson. But, in the process, it creates an adverse perception for the specific location. Suppose you are an IAS officer and you have also been transferred more than 30 times in a span of 20 years of your career, then a) Generally, what are the options available before a civil servant in case of transfer to redress his/her grievances? b) Critically evaluate each option and suggest the most appropriate option giving reasons. c) What more you think can be done to address the issue of frequent postings and transfers which are based on non-merit consideration? Read More » September 21, 2024
