Delhi govt subordinate services reshuffle may affect up to 70% officers

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government is likely to witness one of the largest reshuffles of the officers of subordinate services in the next few days.
Chief secretary Naresh Kumar has recently asked the head of departments to make a list of officials of Delhi Administrative Subordinate Services (DASS) cadre posted in a department for many years and transfer them. The chief secretary has asked the department heads to submit the action taken report by July 6.
At least 60-70% of 8,000-odd DASS cadre grade 1-4 officials may get affected by the exercise, sources said.
The decision comes days after the government transferred over 40 IAS and DANICS officers. Sources said another round of transfers of senior bureaucrats is in the offing.
In a meeting with head of departments on June 6, the chief secretary said many officials are posted in the same department for years.
Why the rejig: About 70% of officials serving in same dept for over 5 years
The Delhi government has a sanctioned strength of over 12,000 Delhi Administrative Subordinate Services (DASS) cadre officials. As per estimates, about 30% of the posts are lying vacant.
"Of the available strength of officers, 60-70% have been serving in the same department or the same post for more than five years," said another official requesting anonymity.
"As per the guidelines of the Central Vigilance Commission, the officials serving on sensitive posts should be moved every three years and those on non-sensitive posts should also be transferred in five years," said a senior Delhi government official.
Sources said there have been instances where some officials, especially those posted in the personal section of the head of departments and secretaries, took a small break to nullify tenure instructions and came back within a few months. Their cumulative posting in that particular department is several years long. An order issued by the special secretary (vigilance) said that a "detailed exercise" should be carried out to identify such officials apart from transferring personnel who are working in non-sensitive posts for long duration (more than 5-6 years).
A senior officer said such mass transfer of junior staff may affect the functioning of departments that directly deal with the public. "In such cases, transfers are done in phases with a gap of 2-3 months so that hand-holding of the new person can be done. It is the prerogative of the head of the department to get special permission from the services department or the chief secretary to retain a few officials for a few months," said another officer.