Shake-up in babudom, 18 more shifted

The state government on Thursday transferred 15 senior IAS officers after transferring 16 junior IAS officers and promoting three state cadre offices to IAS cadre on Wednesday.

The transfer comes a couple of days before the Election Commission’s code of conduct, and consequently ban on transfers without the EC’s approval, comes into force with the announcement of dates for the Lok Sabha election. Official sources here are agog with reports that the announcement of election dates is likely around February 20. 

In the shake-up effected on Thursday, three senior IAS officers have been given additional charges of different posts along with their current charges. These transfers were expected for very long. Most of the transferred officers have either completed three years on the current posts or are about to do so.

However, contrary to speculation making the rounds in official circles, many senior officials, like K Kailashnathan, principal secretary to chief minister, AK Sharma, secretary to chief minister and IP Gatum, municipal commissioner, Ahmedabad, have not been transferred. 

According to a highly-placed source in secretariat, one more round of transfers will take place before or after the declaration of election dates. A bureaucratic reshuffle is also possible when chief secretary D Rajagopalan retires in July as the new CS may carry out some changes.