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The game of musical chairs continues...

Soroor Ahmed in Patna

The transfer of 109 officers of the Indian Administrative Services and the Indian Police Services on November 5, when the assembly election is due next February, does not make big news any more. What makes the headlines, however, is that officials accused by politicians of 'helping' the opposition win, have been dumped in departments where they aren't needed, while some senior officers who have murky pasts have got important postings.

This may not be the last major shake up this side of 2000. On November 3, the government transferred 148 IAS Bihar cadre officials. More overhauls cannot be ruled out since many of the officials belonging to the social justice group -- a euphemism for the backward castes -- the transfer came as a Diwali gift. They are being given these important posts, keeping in mind the assembly elections ahead.

The Rabri government indulged in a similar transfer-spree in the last week of April -- a week after the Vajpayee government fell. Then about 200 officials of different ranks, including the chief secretary and director-general of police were moved around.

Rabri Devi's predecessors too have revelled in the game. The strategy is simply to post trusted officials in the district. As returning officers, that they can't create any problem for the ruling party. They can also help the state government implement populist measures at the fag end of its tenure.

Of course, the government -- be it at the central or the state level-- has the discretion to make such administrative changes. But there are some norms to be followed. Going by rules, it is the state cabinet that should decide on transfers and postings. Nowadays, the chief minister takes all decisions in this regard. In fact, the state government has formed a transfer committee with the chief minister as its chief. But the panel exists only on paper. According to the officers the state government began flouting the rules and norms of transfer in the mid-eighties when the late Bindeshwari Dubey was chief minister. Earlier, the officials used to be transferred only in June or December so that the academic calendar of their children is not affected.

State IPS Association secretary Arvind Pandey told rediff.comthat the state government had, through a resolution in 1990, fixed the tenure of the IPS officers at three years. But it has been observed that 50 per cent of the transfers were made within eight months to a year. Such frequent transfers have affected work and demoralised officers.

Transfer has often been used to punish recalcitrant officers here.

For instance, one young IPS officer, Arvind Verma, has been transferred 11 times in the first nine years of his service since he did not toe the line. When he was posted as the superintendent of police in Gaya in the late 1980s he was dubbed as the Naxalite SP since he was a harsher towards the landlords.

Going by procedure, the police headquarters has to send the list of officers to be transferred to the home department, which forwards it to the establishment committee. The latter is supposed to table the list before the cabinet for the final nod.

Though the state government can do nothing to officers who refuse to budge, it can still shunt them off to departments with little significance, like the Raj Bhasha, the planning board, the Bihar State Housing Federation etc.

In fact, the state government posts IAS officers they don't like in the place of experts in the planning department. According to sources, these officers can do little in this virtually defunct department.

But the state government has posted S K Negi as the commissioner of Darbhanga division. Since there is no permanent vice chancellor in the Lalit Narain Mithila University situated there, Negi also doubles as the VC till a permanent person is appointed. Interestingly, Negi, as the education secretary, was made one the main accused in the BEd scam in that University. What will happen to the scam probe is anybody's guess. The leader of opposition, Sushil Kumar Modi, told newsmen that he would draw the attention of Governor Suraj Bhan to this.

Similarly, Fakhre Alam has been made the deputy commissioner of Garhwa district though only a few months ago though his record is suspect. A raid was even carried out at his residence when he was the vice-chairman of the Patna Regional Development Authority.

While opposition parties in the state objected to the large-scale transfers last April, their voice lacked conviction since the then government of the then acting prime minister Vajpayee had also transferred a great many people, among them then home secretary B P Singh who, incidentally, is also from Bihar.

Even Sunder Singh Bhandari, the governor during the 25 days of President's rule, also effected transfers, changing the state chief secretary and director-general of police only minutes after imposition of President's rule late on February 12.

Some Samata Party leaders like Nitish Kumar have also strongly protested against this administrative shake-up but that could be because the interests of officers close to them were ignored. They exerted so much pressure on the Vajpayee government that Home Minister L K Advani, publicly announced that an apolitical governor would soon replace Bhandari. Bhandari resented that and left for Delhi. Advani cajoled him into returning to his post a week later, where he continued transferring officials. Even on March 8, the day the order for the restoration of the Rabri government was made, he shifted about three dozen IAS officers.

Rabri Devi continued with the same DGP and chief secretary till April 25. But the fall of the Union government made parliamentary elections inevitable. This compelled her to reinstate both S N Biswas and K A Jacob, in whom who she has a great deal of faith, as the chief secretary and DGP respectively.

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