Does peoples’ support bear negative effect on babus?

Jaipur: Transfer of officers is a routine process in the government and under this, senior administrators get transferred in districts. But sometimes it so happens that an officer becomes so famous and loved by the public, owing to the work done, that the locals are perturbed with the transfer of the officer and start protesting to cancel the transfer.

In this matter, the example of IAS Samit Sharma has become a historic fact. In 2009, he was serving as Collector of Chittorgarh and in 2011, he served as Collector of Nagaur district and both the times when he was transferred, the locals from the districts carried out protests for several days and even organised ‘bandh’ to pressurise the government.

Now, after 12 years, a similar kind of incident has been repeated. Through the transfer list of July 13, DoP transferred Divisional Commissioner of Bikaner, Neeraj K Pawan to Jaipur. In his one and a half year long tenure, Pawan engaged in removal of encroachments, bettering the traffic situation as well as the beautification and betterment of the bazaars in the city due to which he became a ‘favourite’ of the people. So it did not go down well with the people when Pawan was transferred and erecting a tent, people started protesting against the transfer. Interestingly, former minister Devi Singh Bhati also participated in the protest.

But neither did the State government cancel the transfer of Samit Sharma at that time, nor did it do so in Neeraj K Pawan’s case. When after five days Neeraj joined in Jaipur, the agitation in Bikaner also ended.

Administrative experts believe that the manner employed to get the transfer cancelled was wrong and cannot be accepted. In fact, this hurts the officer. Sometime back, Udaipur Collector Tarachand Meena was honoured by the tribals living in the district and two ministers of the government also took part in the programme. But this did not go down well with some seniors in Jaipur. Word is that it is due to this that Meena was transferred out of the Udaipur Collectorate.