40 Transfers: Haryana govt could have just set a new world record!

The saying goes that some are marked for success. Senior Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka is apparently marked for transfers. Going by an interview he gave recently to TV news channels, he has been transferred 40 times in the last 21 years.

The most recent transfer was three days after he had ordered a probe into land deals in four districts since 2005 in the wake of media reports alleging irregularities in a deal between Robert Vadra and DLF. The bureaucrat had also requested the Haryana government to order a CBI enquiry into the transfer of panchayat land to real estate firms.

Khemka had responded to the latest transfer order with a letter to the state chief secretary, asking whether his being relieved as inspector-general of the department for the registration of land holdings and appointed as the managing director of the Haryana Seeds Development Corporation was not in violation of service regulations guaranteeing a minimum tenure for any posting.

On October 15, his last day as Haryana’s IG of registration, Khemka cancelled the mutation (or transfer of title deeds) of land sold by Vadra to DLF in 2009. He stated in his order that the mutation had been signed by a revenue officer who was not authorised to do so. In an interview with Times Now, he indicated that the key question could be one of how adjustable bureaucrats were.

In his case, he added, he had no problem in adjusting to policies and decisions that ensured the welfare of the people or enriched the state treasury. He, however, had, he indicated, a difficulty in adjusting to policy decisions that benefited a few private entities or individuals. In the wake of Khemka’s 40 transfers in 21 years, is the Indian Administrative Service being reduced to the Indian Adjustable Service?