Many employees of Goods and Services Tax, Karnataka, are upset with the transfer orders that have come during COVID-19, forcing many to shift to other towns in the State.
The department has affected annual general transfers for 696 employees, nearly 130 of have been moved between Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Belagavi, and other towns in Karnataka. “This shuttling of employees between districts puts them at risk. It is detrimental to the COVID-19 situation, and also exposes officers, their families and residents in those towns. The transfers have come in June and shifting now poses logistic difficulties as well, especially for those with children as they will have to enrol in new schools,” said an official, who has been transferred. All those transferred are required to report to their new postings by June 15.
Employees argue that these transfers, especially to different districts from their present postings, goes against the Centre’s guidelines to avoid all non-essential travel. They also point to moratoriums on annual general transfers till April 2021 adopted by the Ministry of Labour and Employment and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
However, D.P. Nagendra Kumar, Principal Chief Commissioner of Central Tax, Bengaluru zone, said while a majority of transfers were within the same district, some had to be posted out as they had been promoted and a matching post was not available in the same district. “Many had sought a transfer. Others, who had been posted out are returning to their home districts as well,” he said, adding that the department had residential quarters, which were sanitised and safe to occupy. “A few transfers have either been modified or deferred till September on medical grounds,” Mr. Kumar said.