The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Cashing in on political uncertainty

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 08, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Cashing in on political uncertainty

Bageshree S.

Promotions, transfers cleared in two departments
More promotions said to be on
the cards

Bangalore: The political uncertainty in the State over the last few days seems to have speeded up work in some government departments.

Not surprisingly, they have nothing to do with faster implementation of projects, but concern promotions and transfers.

The speed with which promotions and transfers have been cleared in the Public Works Department (PWD) and Water Resources Department give a glimpse into what the principle preoccupation of these government departments has been over the last few days.

Consider this: as many as 45 assistant executive engineers, 12 superintending engineers and 29 executive engineers have been transferred in the two departments.

Thirty-six people have been promoted from the cadre of Assistant Executive Engineer to that of Executive Engineer, and 41 from Assistant Engineer to Assistant Executive Engineer.

“All these have been cleared on just two days, October 3 and 4, when political uncertainty over transfer of power reached a feverish pitch,” said sources in the PWD.

The dates on which Government circulars were issued on these decisions corroborate this.

“These decisions have been taken even as a large number of existing officers are awaiting postings,” the sources said.

“Two chief engineers, 10 superintending engineers, 75 executive engineers and 200 assistant executive engineers are still awaiting postings in PWD alone.”

According to the sources, more promotions are in the offing in the two departments.

As many as 30 promotions from Chief Engineer to Engineer-in-Chief and Superintending Engineer to Chief Engineer in PWD are on the cards.

The flurry for promotions has led to some bizarre situations as well.

Three persons have been posted for the position of Executive Engineer in the PWD Division of Bagalkot.

All three postings were cleared on the same day.

“These postings have been made against the vacancy that will be created when the existing Executive Engineer retires on December 31, 2007,” the sources said.

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