11 IAS on APO, many babus are burdened with multiple charges!

Jaipur: It is for the first time in state’s administrative history that 11 IAS officers are on APO at the same moment! These are Kuldeep Ranka, Gaurav Goyal, Arti Dogra, Rajan Vishal, Pukhraj Sen, Gaurav Budhania, Ria Dabi, Ravi Kumar, AN Somnath, JP Chandrashekhar and SG Ravindra. Among these, four officials were put on APO from the CMO after the new government came to power while one official was put on APO during elections. Meanwhile, there are six officers of the 2021 batch who have not been given new posting after completion of training.

Similarly, this too is happening for the first time that three major departments are at the mercy of the almighty because the reins of these departments have not been handed to anyone by DoP. Veenu Gupta was Additional Chief Secretary of two major departments - Industries and Mines. But she opted for VRS and became RERA Chairman. However, the charge of her departments have not been handed to any officer. Interestingly, both these departments do not have Secretaries also. When in November 2023, Veenu Gupta had gone on a week long leave, the charge of these departments were handed to other Secretaries, but this time around, the department is carrying on its working without any ‘Head’ for the past twenty days.

On the other hand, Secretary of Women and Child Welfare Department - Jitendra Upadhyay - also retired in November 30, 2023 and the charge of this post has not been handed to anyone.

Interestingly, administrative experts consider the Situation surrounding 1998 batch IAS T. Ravikanth unique since he is handling the responsibilities of four postsPrincipal Secretary CMO, UDH, LSG and Medical Education. It is being said that Ravikanth is so busy these days with the work in the CMO that the work in other departments has come to a halt.

As of now, no one can say for certain when will the situation improve for the bureaucracy. Chief Secretary Usha Sharma also has merely four working days left and since there will be holiday on December 30 and 31, hence CS Usha Sharma will retire on Friday, 29 December.