Chandigarh, September 26
Mr Ashok Khemka, Director of Secondary Education, Haryana, who had taken upon the all-powerful Chief Minister’s Office(CMO) on the issue of frequent transfers of teachers, apparently in violation of the policy approved by the government, has been shunted out.
In an order issued here today, the government appointed him as Officer-on-Special Duty(OSD), known in the bureaucratic circles as “the garage in which the most inconvenient officer is parked” by the government.
Ever since Mr Khemka had put up notices in his office that all transfers were banned and had instructed his juniors not to honour transfer notes issued by the CMO, his transfer was widely expected.
Perhaps the government was marking time till the Fatehabad rally organised by the ruling Indian National Lok Dal(INLD)yesterday to celebrate the birth anniversary of Mr Devi Lal before taking action against Mr Khemka.
Mr Khemka had been repeatedly used by various governments to settle scores with Vice-Chancellors found inconvenient by them. He used to be appointed Registrar of those universities, the Vice-Chancellors of which were to be “set right”. Mr Khemka never disappointed the governments. He always succeeded in putting a break on “unfettered actions” of the Vice-Chancellors.
Ever since Mr Khemka’s refusal to honour the directions of the CMO in regard to transfer of teachers became public, newspapers had been publishing reports about the dubious functioning of the Directorate of Secondary Education(DSE) and how the CMO had been issuing transfer directives without applying its mind. The government suspected Mr Khemka to be the sources of selective news reports.
Only a few seniors of Mr Khemka found it easy to work with him, given his straight forward style of functioning and his habit of not mincing words while writing on the files.
Sources in the bureaucracy say Mr Khemka would not hesitate in writing even against immediate bosses, who were to write his annual confidential report(ACR), which many consider to be an instrument for taming IAS officers. No wonder Mr Khemka earned a couple of “average” ACRs.
In one of his acts as the Director, Secondary Education, Mr Khemka wrote to the District Education Officers(DEOs) not to shift any teacher during the mid-session unless the teacher is found to be surplus.
It is believed that about 800 transfer orders issued by the CMO are pending in the DSE. Mr Khemka also told the DEOs to inform their subordinates that no teacher would be transferred in the mid-session of the academic year. The directive was issued on September 24, the last working day of the week.
Mr P.C. Bidhan, IAS, Director Urban Development, will take the place of Mr Khemka.
