THE LITTLE-KNOWN FACETS OF IAS TRANSFER!

Jaipur: A few facts related to the recent transfers of Divisional Commissioners and Collectors are extremely interesting and worth mentioning. Out of the 10 divisions, Divisional Commissioners appointed by the previous government were still carrying out their roles, and only in Ajmer did the current government appoint Mahesh Chand Sharma as DC. However, the new government has continued with the DCs serving in 6 of the remaining 9 divisions, namely Jaipur, Banswara, Jodhpur, Bharatpur, Udaipur and Sikar. Only in Kota, Pali and Bikaner have the DCs been shuffled from one division to another.

The reason for shifting Pratibha Singh from Kota to Pali, Vandana Singh from Pali to Bikaner, and Urmila Rajoria from Bikaner to Kota is beyond comprehension. Why were only these three DCs shortlisted when there was even word of bringing Arushi Malik (from Jaipur) and Neeraj K Pawan (from Banswara) into the mainstream, and efforts were also made in this regard? Only these 2 Divisional Commissioners are directly recruited IAS officers and are senior IAS officers of 2003 and 2005 batches respectively, whereas, the remaining 7 DCs are promotee IAS. Moreover, Jodhpur DC Bhanwarlal Sharma, Udaipur DC Rajendra Bhatt and Sikar DC Mohanlal Yadav are set to retire in August this year.

Similarly, the State government has changed Collectors of 47 out of 50 districts in the State. But Prakash Rajpurohit in Jaipur, Arvind Poswal in Udaipur, and Bharti Dixit in Ajmer have not been shuffled. Interestingly, these 3 districts are Divisional Headquarters too. The 2010 batch IAS officer, Prakash Rajpurohit became Jaipur Collector in July 2022, and prior to this, Prakash had served in 5 districts as Collector, and perhaps it is due to his experience & work ethics that current govt deemed it prudent to let him continue. Udaipur Collector Arvind Poswal has to his name a record of sorts of serving as Collector of Rajsamand during the previous govt for 3 yrs, the maximum by any Collector. Then, Arvind served as Chittorgarh Collector for 18 months, and since July 2023, he has been Udaipur Collector. In 2014, Bharti Dixit became Jhalwar Collector for the first time for 16 months. After this, she was given a jump, & in May 2023, she was appointed as Collector of Ajmer. But why hasn’t the new govt shuffled both these officers, remains a mystery!