Madhya Pradesh government is yet to establish civil services board to decide on transfer of IAS officers in the state.
Replying to an RTI query, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) here said it does not have quarterly report from the state on officers transferred before completion of their minimum prescribed tenure.
The information assumes significance as the state government had recently transferred Ajay Singh Gangwar, an IAS officer and Collector of Barwani in Madhya Pradesh, after he praised Jawaharlal Nehru in his Facebook post in Hindi.
He was also slapped a show cause notice last week for allegedly advocating a 'jan kranti' (people's revolution) against Prime Minister Narendra Modi through a comment made on the social networking site.
"The information regarding the constitution of Civil Services Board (CSB) regarding posting/transfer for IAS officers of Madhya Pradesh is not available with this department.
"Quarterly report of CSB pertaining to the state government of Madhya Pradesh has not been received," the DoPT said replying to the RTI application filed by social activist Ajay Dubey.
It said Madhya Pradesh government has been reminded four times--between 2014 and 2015--to send the quarterly report.
As per rules, all states should have civil services board or committee to decide on transfer and posting of bureaucrats.
This board and committee are mandated to record reasons for transferring a civil servant before completion of his or her fixed tenure. Officers of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) generally have a minimum of two years tenure in each posting.
The CSB shall submit a quarterly report in the prescribed form to the central government clearly stating the details of officers recommended to be transferred before the minimum prescribed tenure, with the reasons for the same, the rules say.
"The state government is working as per its whims and fancy when it comes to postings of IAS officers. They must form the civil services board at the earliest and submit quarterly report to the Centre," said Dubey.
He alleged that some officers of Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS) are also being transfered arbitrarily by the state government.
