The sword of demotion is hanging on 23 officers of Indian Forest Service (IFS), promoted in a tearing haste by previous BJP government in Himachal Pradesh without posts allegedly in violation of rules and norms.
The previous BJP government in the state had promoted 30 IFS officers in two batches in July 2012, just two months before the Assembly polls against seven available posts.
After reviewing the decision, Virbhadra Singh Government is mulling demotion of 23 IFS officers promoted as Additional Principal CCF.
"It is a clear violation of norms and we cannot allow anybody to throw norms to winds like this and get away. The IFS officers promoted without posts would have to be demoted and for this, we are following proper procedures and issuing show cause notices to them," Forest Minister Thakur Singh Bharmauri said.
Bharmauri further said that the chief minister was seriously concerned about these "mass promotions" and has sought the opinion of the law department twice on the issue to clarify certain points.
"There is no hurdle in demoting them as their promotion was in violation of norms," he said.
He said the promotions have also caused resentment among the staff at lower level whose promotion channels were blocked.
