Chhattisgarh shifts 20 DCs, BJP says will cause chaos

The Opposition BJP said the government had taken a “drastic” decision that has created “chaos” in the middle of a pandemic.

Senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister Raman Singh said, “The government seems to have rushed into a drastic decision which will not bode well for the districts. If the collectors were not working up to the mark, small batches could have been transferred instead of one big swoop.”

“The government has created a scene of chaos because the new officers are going to take time to adjust. At a time when numbers are increasing rapidly, this could have been avoided.”

Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Dharamlal Kaushik told the media, “It’s almost like a business deal the state government seems to have pulled off,” he said.

There were murmurs in the bureaucratic circles too. “For any official to get used to the district administration, the work force takes time. The logistic challenges of shifting cities in the middle of the pandemic would be huge,” a senior officer said. “Since the collectors are handling all Covid-related activities in their districts, the transfers raise questions on the preparedness of the districts,” another officer said.

Government spokesperson Taran Sinha said the transfers were “routine” and won’t pose any challenges. “Today it was decided to slowly lift the lockdown, a lot has opened up. There is no problem as such for the state. There’s nothing stopping the routine transfers,” he said.

The ruling Congress accused the BJP of creating furore over nothing. “The BJP’s central government has dabbled in testing kits and ventilator scams. They think everyone is like them. The Congress government in the state is busy trying to fight a pandemic and if they can resort to such low-level politics, it shows their mindset. We have nothing to hide while they are not making details of PM CARES public,” party spokesperson Shailesh Nitin Trivedi said.

Besides putting a moratorium on transfers, the state government circular also encouraged frugal spending and asked officers to cap travel and shifting expenses.