New Delhi: The centre, transferred close to 50 officers of additional and joint secretary level over the past two days. Forty eight officers received their marching orders at midnight. The scale of the transfer of the bureaucrats is being dubbed by babus as the “midnight massacre”.
As many as 40 of those transferred are Indian Administrative Service officers while others belong to Indian Revenue Service, Indian Postal Service, Indian Forest Service and Indian Civil Accounts Service, among others.
Common in some states, but rare at the center, it did not come as a surprise as the bureaucracy was abuzz with expectations of a major reshuffle at the secretary level, after the Modi govt. took over, but other than changing the revenue secretary, the BJP government has stayed with top-ranking officers and even gave a six month extension to cabinet secretary Ajit Seth.
The Government called this a routine exercise, but the buzz in the bureaucratic circles is that the transfers have been done keeping in mind various factors which include efficiency of a bureaucrat, his suitability for a particular post and proximity to the UPA government in the past.
The postings surprisingly include premature repatriation to the parent cadre, something that is rarely done.
The list of those transferred was put out by the department of personnel and training (DoPT) on Wednesday and reveals that there have been significant changes in the home and petroleum ministries.
Gujarat High Court: Whimsical bureaucrats are like modern-day Tughlaqs
In an unrelated but relevant development, the Gujarat high court has equated the behavior of bureaucrats with quixotic 14th century Sultan of Delhi, Muhammed bin Tughlaq, for their “whims and fancies … negligent attitude and misuse of power”. The court even criticized it for denying “achchhe din” to the people of India after Independence.
Justice G B Shah said that the behaviour of modern-day Indian bureaucracy reminds it of Tughlaq, whose policy of shifting the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad had caused miseries for its subject.
The case pertains to the possession of a plot in Vatva GIDC. The plot was sold to Unique Yarn Industries Pvt Ltd in 1991 on certain conditions. The issue of possession of the plot got so complex that it is lying vacant even after 23 years. The complex procedure to be followed with GIDC and Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) resulted in the GIDC seeking the possession of the plot back in 1995.
For last two decades, the court proceedings are on. In 2011, the company requested the authorities to give the plot back, but the authorities turned down the application. Meanwhile, other companies were permitted to construct on the sub-plots, for which Unique Yarn was trying hard for 20 years.
As the issue came before the HC once again, Justice Shah went through the labyrinth of facts and asked GIDC to hand over the plot back to the company and pulled up the officials for their “sheer negligence”. Drawing parallels between Tughlaq and bureaucrats, the court said: “This case reminds me of Muhammed bin Tughlaq. It is true that success is not an outcome of knowledge alone. In spite of being a learned person, a scholar and a man of vision and innovations, he earned the epithet of ‘Pagla Tughlaq’ on account of his impulsive behaviour and hasty moves, which failed and added to the miseries of his courtiers and the common people.”
The court went on to describe how the administration has failed modern India too. The judge observed: “Prior to the Independence, most of such ‘Kingdoms-Rajvadas’ merged and democracy prevailed in India and in turn, Constitution of India was formed. It was thought that ‘achchhe din aa gaye’ but the ground reality is altogether different. This case is a classic example of misuse of power, carelessness and negligent attitude of high ranking government officials, who have no heart and regards towards truth but act as per their whims and fancies.”
The court fined GIDC officials with Rs 50,000 and asked them to pay it to the company towards litigation cost.
