Batala: Frequent transfers spook officials

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Batala, October 19

Frequent “politically motivated” transfers and postings have unnerved officers, virtually forcing them to try every trick to ensure a status quo is maintained till the last week of December when the election code is likely to kick in.

Batala is the playground of leading Congress politicians — Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa, Cabinet minister Tript Rajinder Bajwa and Batala ex-MLA Ashwani Sekhri. Officers and ministerial staff are perennially on the tenterhooks. “Tript was once all-powerful and used his influence to post officials of his choice. Later, ex-CM Capt Amarinder Singh marginalised him and vested power in Partap Bajwa and Sekhri. Now, with the change of dispensation in Chandigarh, Tript has again become powerful. Consequently, he has again started bringing in his trustworthy officials,” said a senior bureaucrat.

In the past two months, the MC Commissioner, chairmen of the Improvement Trust and Market Committee, SSP and a DSP have been shifted. Scores of middle-rung officials, too, have been shuffled.

In August, Tript’s wings were clipped and subsequently Sekhri was crowned as the new “king”. After that Tript loyalist SSP Rachpal Singh was replaced with Ashwani Kapur. DSP (City) Palwinder Kaur, too, was shifted and in her place Lalit Kumar was brought in.

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