Postings For A Price

When money and influence decide official postings, merit becomes irrelevant, and the common citizen is left to suffer the cost of compromised delivery

- Alok Ranjan

Every year, the month of May and June is the transfer season of officers and employees. Detailed policy guidelines have been issued this year by the Government of UP, just like in the past. Yet, once again, the transfers have got mired in controversy. The headlines in the morning newspapers are blaring about corruption and irregular transfers in the stamp and registration department. Evidently, the Minister of State had complained to the Chief Minister, who took cognisance and cancelled the transfers and immediately ordered the removal of the Inspector General stamps who is the head of the department.

In a similar vein, the transfers in the health department and some others are under serious scrutiny. The Ministers are at loggerheads with their officers on the transfer issue, and the entire administrative atmosphere has been seriously vitiated.

Transfers are an annual exercise, intended to streamline the administration and ensure that officers are rotated throughout the state, thereby preventing the development of vested interests in any particular place or region. The guidelines issued are above board, and they prescribe a time limit for an officer to stay in a District or a division before she is transferred out. Naturally, not all the officers in the eligibility zone of transfers can be moved out at one go because this would lead to a massive reshuffle, which would cause instability in governance. Normally, the guidelines prescribe the percentage of officers in a department who should be transferred. The problem arises when there is an arbitrary and partial approach employed in transfers, and also there is a lack of fairness and objectivity in deciding which officer should be transferred where.