Haryana: IAS officer Ashok Khemka transferred to ‘insignificant’ archives dept after notching up 9.9 out of 10 rating in latest appraisal
Three months ago, Haryana cabinet minister Anil Vij had described Khemka as a “rare-breed officer”
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On January 9, Ashok Khemka was transferred to the archives department for the fourth time. He is the only IAS officer to be transferred besides four Haryana Civil Services (HCS) officers transferred Monday. (File Photo) Barely three months after Haryana cabinet minister Anil Vij described IAS officer Ashok Khemka as a “rare breed officer” and a “gem” that he has “rarely seen” in his 40-year-long political career and Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar concurred with his minister, rating Khemka a 9.9 out of 10 in the latest performance appraisal report, the officer was transferred back to a virtually ‘insignificant’ department.
On January 9, Khemka was transferred to the archives department for the fourth time. He is the only IAS officer to be transferred besides four Haryana Civil Services (HCS) officers transferred Monday. The state government did not provide any reason for the abrupt transfer of 1991-batch IAS officer Khemka. This was Khemka’s 55th transfer in his 30-year service career.
The archives department in Haryana has barely 22 employees and an annual budget outlay of around Rs 4 crore. Whereas officers nearly 10 years junior to Khemka are heading far more significant departments.
An IAS officer of Khemka’s rank (additional chief secretary) costs the public exchequer at least Rs 5 lakh per month. This comprises Rs 3.1 lakh salary including dearness allowance, Rs 18,000 per month as home-peon allowance, a chauffeur-driven car, a huge government accommodation for stay, and 100 per cent medical cover for the entire family, among other entitlements. However, there’s barely a couple of hours of work on any given day for an additional chief secretary rank officer in the archives department.
Khemka in his latest Performance Appraisal Report for the period from October 26, 2021, to March 31, 2022, was rated 9.8 out of 10 by chief secretary Sanjeev Kaushal. His rating was further raised to 9.9 by the then science and technology minister Anil Vij and it was subsequently approved by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. During this period of appraisal, Khemka held the position of additional chief secretary (science and technology, and fisheries department).
On August 17, 2022, Kaushal rated him 9.81 on attitude to work; and 9.8 in each of the rest of the parameters – like decision-making ability, initiative, ability to inspire and motivate, strategic planning, ability/innovativeness, coordination ability – taking the overall grading on attributes to 9.8.
In terms of “accomplishment of planned work, quality of output, accomplishment of exceptional work/ unforeseen tasks during the period and overall grading on work output,” Kaushal rated Khemka 9.8 out of 10.
Calling him a “good team leader”, Kaushal further appraised Khemka as “the officer who has courage enough to own the responsibilities and stand up for what is right.”
On September 22, 2022, Anil Vij, Haryana’s incumbent home-cum-health minister who also held the portfolio of science and technology at the time, raised Khemka’s rating to 9.9.
In his comments on Khemka’s appraisal, Vij mentioned that in his over four decades of political career, he had “rarely seen a gem” like Khemka. Further, describing him as a “rare species of highly capable, industrious and honest civil services officer”, Vij said Khemka was an officer who “lives by the creed of absolute honesty” and “his honesty transcends mere political correctness to a strict code of human righteousness”.
Vij further described Khemka as “a rare breed of officers” who always exercise their powers “to help the poor, the weak and the downtrodden”, adding that “I wish the government had made better use of his abilities in the public interest.”
On September 30, 2022, Khattar, too, agreed with Vij’s rating and Khemka was finally appraised at 9.9 out of 10.
Khemka was first transferred to the archives department as director general in 2013 during the tenure of the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government. During the BJP government led by Manohar Lal Khattar in Haryana, he has been transferred to the archives department thrice.
Government sources, however, told The Indian Express that the state government was likely to conduct a major reshuffle/transfer of IAS officers in the coming days and there was a possibility that Khemka could be part of that reshuffle and be assigned more responsibilities.
“Once again archived. A Govt officer is assigned min. 40 hours work per week. But there is a new trick in the book to tackle the honest and the unyielding. Assign little work, bypassing Civil Services Board. Destroy self-respect and heap indignities. Whose interest does it serve?” Khemka tweeted.
Khemka’s transfer came days after he wrote to Haryana chief secretary Sanjeev Kaushal, indicating that he didn’t have enough work following the merger of the science and technology department with the higher education department. Sources disclosed that in his letter to Kaushal and V Umashankar, principal secretary to the chief minister, Khemka also indicated that the workload in the science and technology department “was not more than 2-3 hours per week”.
“It is suggested that an officer of the rank of ACS may be assigned department(s) with a total workload of at least 40 hours a week. If there is no sufficient workload for cadre officers, non-cadre officers may be removed from Administrative Secretaries and repatriated to their own departments,” Khemka had written, according to sources.
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