A show-cause notice has been issued against an IAS officer in Madhya Pradesh after he shared on a social messaging platform the audio recording of his conversation with a senior woman official of the General Administration Department, in which he had expressed displeasure over his transfer.
On May 31, Lokesh Kumar Jangid, who was then additional collector of Barwani district in the state, was transferred as mission director of Bhopal-based Rajya Siksha Kendra.
According to Jangid, this is his ninth transfer in 54 months.
Talking to PTI, MP General Administration Department's Principal Secretary Deepti Gaur Mukherjee said, “He (Jangid) was served a notice on Wednesday, in which he has been asked to reply in seven days." “The matter pertains to a conversation he had with me. My job is to telephone them (officers) to let them know that they have been transferred. But he tapped the conversation, which amounted to invasion into my privacy...His act was unbecoming of a government officer," she said.
Mr. Jangid, 35, said he had shared with his four IAS colleagues the recorded conversation of 30-odd seconds between him and Mukherjee over his transfer.
"I shared this audio with four of my IAS colleagues on personal chats. It was done after the (transfer) order was issued in writing by the GAD and updated in the department's website. I had shared it in good faith and in personal capacity when they asked me about the reason for my sudden transfer...I told them that I was not informed about the reason. So I shared the audio with them saying this is what the GAD principal secretary told me...I did not share it in any group," Mr. Jangid said.
“But I think that it is not a question of breach of any conduct rules, because the information is neither of confidential nature nor of personal nature. It does not violate her (Mukherjee's) privacy. Even the Right to Information Act states that government officials should proactively disclose the information which ought to be in the public domain,” he said.
"This audio was of May 31, for which I have been issued notice yesterday, after a gap of 17 days," the IAS officer said, adding that he had been transferred nine times in 54 months.
Mr. Jangid said that on June 11, he had written to the state government for inter-cadre deputation to Maharashtra for three years citing that his 87-year-old grandfather is a diabetic, who is also suffering from Parkinson's disease.
"Besides, I want to take care of my widowed mother”, the 2014-batch IAS officer, who hails from Parbhani district of Maharashtra, said.
He said he would respond to the notice as per his "own time".
