The standoff between the Delhi Government and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) over the issue of transfer postings might have generated negative headlines over the last month, but couldn’t have come at a more opportune time for some in the Capital’s bureaucratic circles. Close to a dozen Indian Police Service (IPS) officers posted across the echelons of the police, a decision pertaining to whose transfers out of Delhi was supposed to be taken at a recent meeting which was cancelled, can now continue with their current job assignments.
“There are close to half a dozen IPS officers across the ranks of joint commissioners and special commissioners of police already transferred in April or in line for a transfer. Their postings have been delayed after a meeting of the Joint Cadre Authority of the All India service or the AGMU cadre got cancelled last week,” said a source.
“Not only was this a setback for the police, which has been sitting on a cadre review expected to make significant structural changes to its hierarchy for over a year, its ramifications will extend to other police forces under the jurisdiction of the AGMU cadre,” the source said. According to the source, the said meeting, which was scheduled to be held at the MHA on June 4, was ‘officially cancelled’ due to the absence of the Chief Secretaries of two union territories (UTs) who were supposed to be in attendance. Status quo must now be maintained till the next such meeting.
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The ‘actual reason’ for the cancellation of the meeting, however, was the unavailability of senior MHA officials, who were engaged in lengthy consultations on the issue of ‘making the Delhi Government fall in line’, ‘ways of empowering the MHA’s writ in the Capital through the Lieutenant-Governor’, and preparing ‘an effective legal defence against the Delhi Government’.
The last such meeting, chaired by the Joint Secretary (UTs) had been held in early April. No specified date has been cited for another meeting to look into the issue yet.
“While many bureaucrats do not want to leave the Capital despite having occupied their respective postings in Delhi above the specified time limit that ranges between two and three years, their replacements have been relieved from their posts and are currently hanging in the middle. Many of them have been stuck in limbo for at least two months,” said an official.
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Close to a dozen IPS officers whose transfers out of Delhi was supposed to be taken at a meeting that was cancelled, can now continue