BHOPAL: As many as 110 IAS and IPS officers have been transferred in the past month and a half in Madhya Pradesh as the Mohan Yadav govt switches into reset mode after 16.5 years of Shivraj Singh Chouhan regime. A whopping 80 of them are IAS officers.
Sources in the corridors of power say another major reshuffle is expected at the district level before the Lok Sabha polls.
IAS transfers, so far, have been mostly at the secretariat level, but a few collectors – including Bhopal, Indore, Ujjain and Jabalpur — have been changed.
The administrative surgery started just three days after three-time Ujjain MLA Mohan Yadav took oath as chief minister on December 13. Sixteen orders have been issued since then for IAS transfers, with 45 officers being reshuffled in three tranches in the last 12 days– 12 on Jan 22, 18 on Jan 28 and 15 on Feb 2.
In recent years, the highest number of IAS transfers at one go was in the peak of the Covid crisis in May 2020 when 50 IAS officers were shifted. Shivraj Singh Chouhan was the CM then. Just five days after he took oath as CM for the fourth time in March 2020, Chouhan had appointed Iqbal Singh Bains as chief secretary. After two extensions, Bains retired on Nov 29, four days before the declaration of assembly polls results. Veera Rana was given additional charge as chief secretary by Election Commission the same day and the Mohan Yadav govt appointed her to the post on Jan 17.
The new BJP govt also tried to give a tough message to the bureaucracy by transferring officials to fix accountability. On Jan 3, the Shajapur collector was transferred over objectionable language used during a meeting with striking truck drivers. On Dec 28, CM transferred the state transport commissioner, Guna collector and SP after a bus accident claimed 13 lives.
Last month, the Singrauli deputy collector was transferred after a viral photo showed a woman tying his shoelaces at a public event. An SDM posted in Umaria district was suspended after a video showed him standing as two youths were being beaten. Govt insiders say more transfers are expected till the poll code is imposed for the Lok Sabha elections.
