Dilli Ka Babu: The ultimate transfer pradesh

Uttar Pradesh has a distinct and unenvious record under chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, especially in matters relating to the state’s administration. A highly politicised bureaucracy has led to allegations of administrative laxity and routine mass transfer of babus. It is said that no bureaucrat in the state lasts an average of three months in any posting!

Curiously, Mr Yadav had, with typical fanfare, announced a transfer policy last year, stipulating the conditions for transferring bureaucrats. Typically, again, it is more honoured in the breach than the observance!

But even cynical observers were taken aback when the Uttar Pradesh government recently effected the biggest bureau-cratic reshuffles in recent times by transferring 233 officials in a single day, including 26 Indian Administrative Service officers and 15 police officers in the state.

Probably it anticipated the state high court’s decision a few days later, under which all transfers in the state are banned till Mr Yadav’s government set up the state Civil Services Board as stipulated by the recent amendment in the Indian Administrative Service cadre rules. Chief secretary Jawed Usmani, however, described the transfers as “a mandatory exercise” prior to the general elections which is the contemporary euphemism for ensuring “unbiased” elections.