Green signal for transfers

​Hyderabad: The long wait of the government officials for their transfers has finally come to an end with the Telangana government finalising the Transfer policy on Tuesday. The policy was framed by the three-member official committee. Tentatively, the government will issue transfer orders to the officials from May 27 or 28 till June second week. An official notification to this effect will be issued shortly. However, government teachers will not be allowed for transfers as the issue of their uniform service rules was pending before the High Court.

In view of the Panchayat Raj elections scheduled to be held in July, the government hastened the process for the transfer of officials with immediate effect. Based on the recommendations made by the committee headed by Special Chief Secretary (Energy) Ajay Mishra, all the department heads were instructed to receive applications from the staff for the transfers.

The committee has submitted its report on the Transfer policy to Chief Secretary SK Joshi which had been ratified. The committee also forwarded the report to Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao for his final nod. GAD (Political) Secretary Adhar Sinha and Finance Secretary Shiv Shankar were the other members of the committee. The committee prepared modalities for the transfers in consultation with the employees‘unions recently. The officials said that a notification on the transfers and schedule will be issued in two or three days.

Under the Transfer policy, spouses working in far-away locations, widows, physically challenged and the officials retiring in two or three years will be given priority in transfers. Though seniority and service are taken into consideration for the transfers, the grievances of the above mentioned categories will be taken into consideration first and address the same instantly. It is mandatory that the officials should seek transfer if they completed two years in service in the existing post and location.

The new policy will facilitate the transfer of 50 per cent of total staff at one go, officials said, adding that the new provision will help transfer the officials en masse, particularly in the Police and Excise and Prohibition departments. Thousands of the applications seeking transfers on spouse grounds and the officials working for years in the same locations from these two departments were pending since years.

The heads of the Panchayat Raj, Rural Development and Municipal Administration and Urban Developments have already been busy preparing the lists of officials to be transferred. The committee recommended to the government not to take up the transfer of teachers working in School Education department until the issue of the uniform service rules case pending before High Court is resolved. The government was asked to appoint a legal expert to dispose off the court's status quo on transfers at the earliest.