Uttarakhand : Controversy over transfers, citing rules, the secretary is not ready to bow down!

Rekha Arya, the only woman minister in the Uttarakhand government, and the officials continue to have a tussle. From the previous Dhami government till now, several times in the last 3 years, the news of his tussle with the secretaries posted in his departments has been coming out. Not only the news, but Rekha Arya herself has also been seen making continuous statements against the officials. One such case has come up again, in which he is again in discussions regarding the transfer in his own department. However, Minister Rekha Arya said that the Secretary has ignored his instructions in this matter, which has been conveyed to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. The whole situation has been placed in front of them.

In fact, Sachin Kurve, Secretary, Department of Food, has categorically denied the letters of Minister Rekha Arya, in which he had talked about the transfer of District Supply Officer (DSO) without asking him. By issuing a letter from Departmental Secretary Sachin Kurve, it has been told that all these transfers in the Food Department are completely as per the rules. Secretary Sachin Kurve has made it clear that transfers in the department are justified, which will remain so, they will not be canceled at any cost. Not only this, he has mentioned in his letter that neither the permission of the departmental minister nor the departmental secretary is required for the transfers that have taken place in the department.

Reply to Sachin Kurve

Food Secretary Kurve said in the letter that when transfers take place under the Transfer Act, no minister’s permission is taken. An officer is posted at a place only for a specified time. Therefore, he has transferred all the officers by following the Transfer Act. In such a situation, once the transfer list is issued by him, that list will not be canceled at any cost. Sachin Kurve has said in his letter that if this happens, then there will be controversy in the department and an atmosphere of chaos will spread today.

Kurve, in a letter to Cabinet Minister Rekha Arya, has cited the Act 2017 to say that the Group B category officers in the department, who are District Supply Officers and Regional Food Officers, must meet with the Departmental Secretary and the Departmental Minister before their transfer. Approval is not required. He has written in his letter that the approval of the Permanent Transfer Committee is necessary for these transfers, which is already constituted in the department and these transfers have been done on the approval of this committee. Secretary Sachin Kurve said that the same process was adopted in the year 2018 and 19 also. Even at that time the transfer list was issued without the approval of the minister.

Rekha was not transferred under Arya Bid Act

On the other hand, Minister Rekha Arya came to know about the secretary’s letter, immediately his statement also came. Minister Rekha Arya said that, saying all this by the secretary is not correct at all. Perhaps the secretary is not aware of the Act. Minister Rekha Arya said that, it may be that something like this has been done due to personal interests, so he has written a letter to Secretary Personnel, asking for the original file related to the confidential entry of Sachin Kurve. The minister said that it is not justified in any way to order the transfer of 6 district supply officers, although the minister has not been asked in this matter. He said that the manner in which the transfers were made in the department is completely in violation of the Act.

The minister said that on June 20, the Food Commissioner sent the District Supply Officer of Nainital on compulsory leave without his permission. On this, he had summoned him to cancel this order and get his approval on it. The Food Commissioner and the Departmental Secretary, instead of following his instructions, transferred six District Supply Officers on the same day, that too without their approval. The transfers have been made in such haste that instead of 22 June 2022, the date of 22 June 2019 has been written in the minutes of the meeting related to it. The concerned officials also signed it without seeing it.

The minister said that the Food Commissioner attached Shyam Arya’s Pithoragarh, Mukesh Kumar’s Haridwar, Dehradun’s District Supply Officer Jaswant Singh Kandari’s Chamoli, Haridwar’s District Supply Officer KK Aggarwal’s Rudraprayag, Nainital’s District Supply Officer Manoj Varman. The District Supply Officer of Bageshwar and Rudraprayag Manoj Doval has been transferred to Nainital. These transfers have been done in a hurry without following the process. The list of eligible officers for transfers was neither released on the department’s website nor ten options were taken from the concerned officers for transfers.

The minister cited the Transfer Act

Minister Rekha Arya said that the Transfer Act has been made by the government for transparency in transfers. According to the Act, by April 30, the Head of the Department had to mark the workplace as per the standard, by May 1, transfer committees were to be formed at the Government, Head of the Department, Division and District level, by May 15, accessible and inaccessible places were to be fixed for every cadre. By May 20, options were to be sought from eligible personnel for 10 desired places for compulsory transfers. Applications were to be sought on the basis of request till 31 May. The transfer committee meeting was to be held from July 25 to 5. After this, the transfer order was to be known by July 10, but according to the Transfer Act, the Departmental Secretary completed the entire action in just one and a half hours without following the procedure.

Know full case

It should be noted that this matter between cabinet minister Rekha Arya and her departmental secretary is in constant discussions for the last 3 days. It should be noted that Minister Rekha Arya was already angry with Nainital’s District Supply Officer Manoj Varman being sent on compulsory leave for 10 days and after that the whole episode has caught up with the transfers of the officers. According to departmental sources, ration was being given to people without biometrics in many shops in Nainital district. The matter was revealed in the recent meeting. It was told that in 26 ration shops the biometric percentage was zero, while in 163 shops the biometric percentage was only 15 to 17 percent. On this, the Departmental Secretary had sent the concerned District Supply Officer on compulsory leave of ten days.

After this, Food Secretary and Commissioner Sachin Kurve had transferred district supply officers in all the districts including Dehradun, Haridwar two days ago (on June 22). After the transfer list came out, Minister Rekha Arya wrote a letter to Sachin Kurve with immediate effect, asking to stop the transfer immediately. He said that the information about these transfers was not given to him. However, Sachin Kurve did not take cognizance of the minister’s letter and issued transfer orders of DSO of Dehradun district late in the evening on the same day. After this Rekha Arya became very angry and made many serious allegations against the secretary. Now another letter has been issued on behalf of Sachin Kurve, in which despite the displeasure of the minister, Sachin Kurve has made it clear that the transfer will be done legally.

In the past also Rekha Arya has got the figure of 36 from the officials

This is not the first case of a tussle between Rekha Arya and bureaucrats. Even before this, minister Rekha Arya has come under attack from V Shanmugam to Sowjanya. Now it has to be seen whether the officers of the department remain at their level on this whole matter or once again the matter will be resolved only after defending the Chief Minister.