Intra-ministry transfer of municipal admin officials raises eyebrows

According to secretariat sources, Local Administration Minister SP Velumani, who holds the municipal administration ministry that floats the maximum number of tenders in the state has managed to secure the postings of his trusted IAS officials. 

“The Coimbatore-based Minister also got his trusted officials based in Chennai and Coimbatore to swap their posts reporting to the same ministry,” said an informed secretariat official.

City Corporation Commissioner and Chennai Metro Water MD are two significant posts particularly at the times of elections. City Corporation Commissioner will also be the district election officer for three parliamentary seats and managing director of metro water will be the crucial bureaucrat monitoring the drinking water mitigation project in six parliamentary constituencies, the source said.  

Commissioner of Municipal Administration G Prakash is now the Commissioner of Chennai Corporation and the incumbent D Karthikeyan is transferred to head the CMA. Similarly, Vijayakarthikeyan, formerly Commissioner Coimbatore Corporation is transferred and posted as director, Tamil Nadu Institute of Urban Studies, Coimbatore, the source noted.

The appointment of special secretary TN Hariharan, former collector of Coimbatore as the managing director of Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) had also created a debate in the Secretariat as the post is usually held by an officer in the rank of principal secretary and above.

In the past 18 months, the CMWSSB had witnessed the transfer of three officials, ranging from Arun Roy, who handled the 140-year-old historical drought in Chennai, principal secretary Satyabrata Sahoo followed by additional chief secretary Ashok Dhongre. The rank and file of the Chennai metro water are also finding it difficult to understand the reason behind the frequent transfer of their managing director.

It may be noted that recently a section of young IAS officer expressed displeasure to the Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan stating that group one officers are preferred as district collectors ignoring the opportunity for the direct IAS officers belonging to the 2009-2011 batch.