The Water and Power Consultancy Services (WAPCOS), a Central Public Sector Enterprise under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, has ordered repatriation of its 48 officials posted abroad in 16 countries with “immediate effect” and report back to India. According to sources, an order to this effect was issued by the WAPCOS on October 7 with the approval of the Competent Authority, and came on a day Jal Shakti Minister C R Patil took a review of the WAPCOS. "All officials presently posted in various countries as per the attached list at Annexure -I are hereby, repatriated to India with immediate effect. They shall report to HR Division for further instructions,” the order, issued by the WAPCOS, stated. However, it didn’t mention the reason for asking the officials to return. Sources said the unprecedented move is part of the government's efforts to put things in order at the WAPCOS. Its former CMD Rajinder Kumar Gupta was arrested by the CBI after `38 crore in cash was seized during raids at his premises in 2023. He is also facing an ED inquiry. As per the order, officials are posted in Bhutan, Cambodia, Fiji, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Liberia, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Rwanda, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Tonga, and Uganda. Maximum officials are posted in Bhutan at 16, followed by Mozambique at 8. Last month, the government removed WAPCOS CMD Rajni Kant Agrawal and appointed IAS officer Shilpa Sachin Shinde to the post. After taking over, sources said that Shinde has introduced several new initiatives. On September 20, WAPCOS invited suggestions for “improvement” directly from its employees. Sources said that WAPCOS officials have been asked to clear bills on priority and pay employees allowances on time. On October 7, WAPCOS directed its staff to “punch their biometric attendance without fail” with effect from this month. “This is to inform that the salaries of the employees across all WAPCOS offices from the month of November 2025 shall be prepared based on the Bio-metric Attendance only,” stated a WAPCOS order.
