Punitive transfers leave officials nervous

By Mukund Padmanabhan

CHENNAI, JUNE 4. There is a strong punitive streak in the first mass transfer of IAS officials effected by the Jayalalitha Government.Officers who manned the Chief Minister's Secretariat and Office, under the previous Government headed by Mr. M. Karunanidhi, have borne the brunt of governmental disfavour, with four of the six transferred being shunted out of Chennai, to inconsequential posts as commissioners of disciplinary proceedings in various centres.

The transfer of these officers, who were placed on compulsory wait the very day Ms. Jayalalitha was sworn in Chief Minister, is no surprise. But their new postings reflect, as some IAS officers lament, the increasing tendency in the political executive to appraise the loyalty of officials in extremely narrow terms - a trend which will only further divide and politicise the Tamil Nadu bureaucracy.

A transfer which has taken the bureaucracy by surprise, however, is that of Mr. N. Narayanan, CMD of the Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited (TNPL), who has been sidelined as Special Commissioner for Disciplinary Proceedings at Tiruchi. It is not clear what prompted the transfer of Mr. Narayanan who, as Finance Secretary was a key official during Ms. Jayalalitha's previous regime and under whose stewardship the TNPL performed exceedingly well recently.The speculation is that the punitive transfer is related to Mr. Narayanan's deposition as a prosecution witness in the two TANSI cases in which Ms. Jayalalitha was convicted. If this is correct, the fate of a number of other IAS officers, who have deposed in various cases, remains to be seen.

The fact that a number of Collectors figure in the list of 90-odd transfers is not unexpected as the majority of them were due to be shifted anyway. In a few cases though, the Collectors have been moved despite their having served only a few months in the job.

In some cases, officials who were out of favour with the previous regime have been rehabilitated. For instance, Mr. Ravindra Kumar Sharma, who was Commissioner of Economics and Statistics, has been made Transport Commissioner. But in a number of other instances, officers perceived to be neutral and non-controversial have been moved laterally and accommodated in good posts. Mr. Gowrishankar, who was Secretary of School Education, has been made Industry Secretary.

With some transferred IAS officers not given fresh postings and with some key positions unchanged, it is expected that a second round of transfers will follow shortly. For example, no changes have yet been effected in the posts of Secretaries to the Finance, Revenue, Social Welfare and Planning departments and Commissioners for Revenue Administration and Taxes and in the post of CMD of the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation.

Senior officials of the rank of Chief Secretary have remained unchanged and could also be part of the next round of transfers.

Ms. Jayalalitha has suggested that this round of transfers is part of a routine administrative change, but the punitive element has resulted in a nervous bureaucracy anxious to know what is in store in the next reshuffle.

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Section  : Southern States
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