Half-won match
An IAS officer whom a minister had a score to settle with was transferred. To shift that officer, the minister had to make incessant efforts that included his pleading with the Chief Minister. What spawned the minister’s anathema towards the officer is not known yet its seeds were sown when the officer had been posted as collector to the minister’s home district from where the bureaucrat was shunted off to another place.
But blinded by hate they could not read the writing on the remotest stars, that they would be put together again to work in the same department. The minister has had his way yet again and got him shifted to another department. Still, the minister is not happy, thinking that the match is half-won. Necessity has become so hard pressed upon the minister, that he is out to get rid of a female bureaucrat of his department.
So hard he is working to remove her, that he shot a letter to the Chief Minister about it. The problem is that the officers do not lack efficiency, but that they generally dig their heels in doing the minister’s illegitimate orders. So, his relationship with the officers has always been patchy.
Problem
The Chief Minister is extremely angry with an IPS officer who often creates problems, small or big, for the government. The officer has been told to take advice from others before making any decision on important matters, but he hardly bothers about such a piece of good advice as that. An order recently issued by him has put the government in a tight spot once more.
The order has kicked up so big a row that Delhi had to intervene, but the IPS officer stuck to his guns even as other bureaucrats debated about it. On some earlier occasions, the orders or circulars issued by the officer did no good to the government, but for causing embarrassment. The government is trying to find out his substitute before he could cause further damage to the government in an election year.
Loss
Cool-it approach has caused a huge loss not only to a principal secretary, but also to the two departments he was heading. Before he took over, one of the departments was running in profit. Since the officer’s work-shy approach woke up the government, some officials close to the Chief Minister decided to strip the Principal Secretary of the department which is dealing with a big project and has still some hope to survive.
So sloppy is the officer that the project is veering towards closure, and the minister of the department, too, feels cast down because of the officer’s performance. Though the officer has realised his mistake, it is too late. Now, the officer wants to go to another department where he was posted earlier. But it has to be seen whether he can get the desirable posting in the ensuing administrative shake-up.
Searching for work
Stripped of an additional position, a secretary posted to the Chief Minister’s office is in quest of work. And but with little work, after the appointment of a new officer to accompany the Chief Minister during his official tours that the secretary used to do, the bureaucrat still hopes to get the additional charge of a department.
What is said about this officer is a post is being created for him, and the Sahib is all set to get it, too. But the officer did not get that kind of power for which he preferred the Chief Minister’s office to other places. Initially, he did not even get an official house, and when he did, he was stripped of the departments he was heading. To him a different fate has been meted out – from a collector he has become a Babu. Browned off, so he looks these days.
Farewell in the offing!
Farewell awaits a female IAS officer in the state capital. It is not the fact that she is being forced out of her present position, but that she herself wants to get out of Bhopal and join any district as collector. She may be sent to any district in the next administrative shake-up. Being in Bhopal, she cannot meet her family members who live in Delhi. Out she wants to go of the state capital where she remains busy with the government’s work and cannot find time to go to Delhi.
This officer was averse to coming to Bhopal, leaving the post of collector, but a powerful Principal Secretary got her posted to the state capital. The talks of her posting have made some BJP leaders are happy, because they feel left out by her. She is the second woman who has been on that post, so the government is in search of another woman for this position.
Waiting
The government has made changes in posting of IAS officers, but an important department remains headless. In spite of the best efforts, the government could not find anyone suitable for that unit. There are two reasons that put government in a bind over the selection of an officer who can head that department.
On the one hand, the officer who made all efforts to get himself transferred to that department was shifted to another place, and on the other, the officer whom the government wants to post to that unit is not keen on joining there. Posted as a commissioner to a department, the officer concerned wants to join any department on the same position. Other officers who are lobbying for that plum post are not getting their foothold in the corridors of power. An officer who is running the department as part of additional charge wants to remain there.
