Many IAS officers await posting

By S.Vydhianathan

CHENNAI, JUNE 2. Perhaps for the first time in the State, many senior IAS and IPS officers, who were handling key portfolios in the previous regime, have been kept on ``wait'' without a posting.

It is a normal practice for any new government to have IAS and IPS officers of its choice in ``powerful'' posts as soon as it comes to power. But for the first time, a chunk of senior IAS officers were relieved of their posts and have not been given new postings.

The entire team of officers, which was in the Chief Minister's Secretariat in the previous regime, has been sidelined by the new Government. This included Messers. Ashok Vardan Shetty, Irai Anbu, Dayanand Kataria, T.R. Ramaswamy, N. Sunderadevan, K. Rajamanickam, S. Chandrakumar, K. Gopinathan and Santosh Kumar. Apart from them, Mr. R. Poornalingam, former Chairman of the TNEB, Ms. Malathy, former Secretary, Municipal Administration, Mr. S. Kumarasawami, Additional Director of General, Law and Order, and Mr. M. Balachandran, Additional Commissioner of Police, have been transferred but not given new postings.

These IAS officers are eligible to draw their salaries during the waiting period but are not entitled to perquisites. Till they get postings, the Public Department will take care of their pay and other allowances. They are not supposed to move from the headquarters without permission and are expected to inform the Department whenever they want to travel.

A senior IAS officer here said normally a new government does keep officers in waiting to facilitate a reshuffle. As per the rules, he said an IAS officer should not be kept ``under wait'' for more than a month, lest the Accountant General should raise an objection. But there have been instances of a few IAS officers being not given posting for more than a year and accommodated only at the fag end of their career, he added.

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Section  : Southern States
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