The ongoing tension between the Aam Aadmi Party Government and the Centre may have its fallout on an early release of some senior administrative officers holding key posts. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal recently requested the Prime Minister to stay their transfer orders as the newly-formed government “would need their services due to their long experience in Delhi”.
Government sources said since the Union Home Ministry has overturned his specific request to appoint senior IPS officer Praveer Ranjan as chief of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), and after the two-day protest by the Chief Minister, his appeal to the Prime Minister to stay the Home Ministry transfer orders of IAS officers may also not be entertained.
In a major reshuffle, the Home Ministry had transferred 17 IAS officers of the AGMUT cadre on January 10, out of which six officers were transferred out to other Union Territories and States. Five officers were transferred from other places to Delhi.
Taking exception to the decision taken without a consultation with the State Government, Mr. Kejriwal on January 15 wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting him to stay the orders “at least till Parliamentary elections”. In the letter, Mr. Kejriwal reasoned that the Delhi Government needed services of these officers as the “Parliamentary elections are just round the corner and only a few weeks are left before the model code of conduct sets in”.
Among the IAS officers, who have been transferred out, include Urban Development Secretary S.S. Yadav, Principal Secretary (Health) S.C.L. Das, and VAT Commissioner Prashant Goyal. Mr. Yadav, who was Secretary in the Food and Civil Supplies Department, was transferred by the Kejriwal Government to the Urban Development Department and also made the director of local bodies. Mr. Yadav had executed the rollout of the ambitious Food Security Programme in the Capital during the previous Sheila Dikshit government.
With the AAP promising regularisation of unauthorised colonies within one year, Mr. Yadav was expected to play a key role in his current assignment.
The transferred officials are expected to be relieved and take charge of new assignments in the first week of February.
