K Chandrasekhar Rao's decision turns controversial as 'transfer gate' opens in Telangana
Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s decision to accept recommendations of public representatives for effecting government job transfers has become controversial.
Mr Rao has been repeatedly assuring “zero political corruption” in running the government ever since he assumed office on June 2.
However, this latest move works against that ideal if one goes by the track record of government job transfers that may open the floodgates of “political corruption”.
Teachers offer Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3 lakh for a transfer depending on the location, while RDOs and MROs offer over Rs 10 lakh.
If one takes into account the huge amount of money changing hands for the transfer of DSPs, SIs and CIs in the police department and executive engineers and assistant engineers in irrigation, roads and buildings and panchayat raj departments, government job transfers could become a lucrative business for politicians, who would mint money within a short time.
Mr Rao, during his meeting with party MLAs, MLCs and MPs at TRS Bhavan on Friday, came out with the proposal for considering the recommendation of public representatives for transfer of employees. He sought constituency-wise list of transfers from them.
The Telangana government said it would consider the transfer recommendations made by the public representatives virtually opening the doors for open sale of posts.
Existing transfer rates:
DSPs: Rs 20 lakh to Rs 25 lakh
RDOs: Rs 15 lakh to Rs 20 lakh
MROs: Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh
CIs: Rs 5 lakh to 6 lakh
SIs: Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh
Teachers- Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3 lakh
Divisional Engineers: Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh
Executive Engineers: Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh
Assistance Engineers: Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh
Within 24 hours of Mr Chandrasekhar Rao’s decision becoming public, the Telangana Secretariat was humming with activity with MLAs and MLCs rushing to ministers’ chambers to revive the transfer files that have been gathering dust since June 2.
With the Chief Minister saying a strict no for transfers based on recommendations by public representatives all these days promising ‘zero political corruption’ in administration, the transfer business took a beating upsetting MLAs, MLCs and others.
Ideally, the merit of the employee and the necessity has to be the criterion for transfers and postings. With the latest move, employees seeking transfers have to necessarily depend on the mercy of ruling party MLAs, MLCs and MPs. If not, they will be forced to continue in existing locations.
“There are critical areas like law and order, Naxalism among others, where efficient officers have to be appointed. If officers are appointed in these areas based on recommendations by MLAs and MLCs and not by merit and honesty, it will have severe repercussions on safety and security besides the goals of giving a clean and good governance would go for a toss,” said a senior official. He said the new rules would mean MLAs and MLCs in respective constituencies and ministers in districts would have a final say in effecting transfer of employees.
“All these years, those who could approach ministers and the CMO in the Secretariat used to lobby for transfers by paying a certain amount. This number did not exceed 10,000 a year. But with the latest move to give recommendation powers to public representatives constituency-wise, the applications would cross 50,000 in a year. This is not a healthy sign and clean and good governance cannot be achieved with this,” said another senior official in the panchayat raj department.
