New policy to make transfers smoother in power department

Kolkata: Flooded with transfer applications from various parts of the state, the state power department is framing a “transfer policy” to streamline the process.

A committee has been constituted that will submit its report within a month on the basis of which the policy will be formulated with approval from chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, who took over as the power minister on May 27, 2016 after the Trinamul Congress government was elected for the second time in Bengal, is sitting on as many as 3,500 applications seeking transfer.

“I had instructed my principal secretary and chairman of West Bengal Power Development Corporation for forming a committee that will frame a policy of uniform transfer. The committee has been formed and will submit its report in a month. Another month will be needed to bring it to effect,” Mr Chattopadhyay said.

“The minister in his close circle had said he did not want to the earn the tag of the ‘transfer minister’. So now everything will be uniform and there will be no allegations of favouritism in this regard,” an official said.

A scrutiny of the applications revealed that the reasons for transfers were genuine in most cases.

Most of these transfers had been sought at the head office of the power department in Salt Lake for the ill health of the family members, problems regarding the education of children, deteriorating health conditions of the applicants, etc.

“The problem is if we transfer so many officers in Kolkata, then what will happen to our other units located in different parts of the state?” an official said.

Moreover, officials in the power department indicated that age, experience, previous history of transfer, sincerity and diligence on the part of the employees were among the things that will be considered for framing this transfer policy.