Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Love, Marriage and Red Tape: How bureaucracy comes in the way of these babu couples living together

BELIEVE it or not, a number of young bureaucrat couples have not been able to live together, partly because of bureaucratic hassles! Call it red tapes. Yes, you are reading it right. Whether it's because of the delay in getting permission or thanks to communication gaps, a number of newly-married bureaucrat couples have failed to manage cadre transfer, thereby living in separate states. Here are nine such couples:

Ms Riju Bafna, 2014 batch Chhattisgarh cadre IAS, applied for inter-cadre transfer from Chhattisgarh cadre to Madhya Pradesh cadre on the ground of marriage to her batch-mate Avi Prasad of Madhya Pradesh cadre.
But…The government of Chhattisgarh did not give No Objection Certificate to the officer on account of paucity of IAS officers in the cadre. The state government of Chhattisgarh however conveyed “No Objection” to inter-cadre transfer of her spouse viz Avi Prasad to Chhattisgarh, in the event of such an application being made by the officer concerned.

Ms Afsana Perveen, 2014 batch Jammu and Kashmir cadre IAS officer, applied for inter-cadre transfer from Jammu and Kashmir cadre to Kerala cadre on the grounds of marriage to Jafar Malik, 2013 cadre Kerala cadre IAS.
But…The comments of the state governments concerned have been sought. A letter intimating the present status of the case along with the copies of the letters sent to the state government, have been issued to Ms Afsana Perveen.

Dinesh Kumar A S, 2013 batch Manipur-Tripura cadre IAS, sought inter-cadre transfer to Andhra Pradesh cadre on the ground of marriage to his batch-mate of Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS Ms Vijaya K.
But…Kumar’s vigilance clearance was denied because of default of filing IPR for the year, 2014. Now, the officer has requested for condonation of the delay so that he can spend some quality time with his better half.

U Swaroop, 2011 batch West Bengal cadre IAS, sought for inter-cadre transfer from West Bengal cadre to Tamil Nadu cadre on the ground of marriage.
But…
After processing the proposal, it was found that the request of the officer for proposed inter-cadre transfer is not covered under the extant policy, as Tamil Nadu is the home state of the officer. So, the proposal has been rejected.

Dr (Ms) Kadambari Bhagat, 2010 batch Nagaland cadre IAS, applied for inter-cadre transfer from Nagaland cadre to Maharashtra cadre on the ground of marriage to Balkwade Shailesh Unmesh, 2010 batch Maharashtra cadre IPS officer.
But…Though the request of the officer for proposed inter-cadre transfer is covered under the extant policy, the same has not been received through parent cadre of the officer and same has been sought from government of Nagaland. Hence is the delay.

Ms Nidhi, 2013 batch West Bengal cadre IAS, sought for inter-cadre transfer from West Bengal cadre to AGMUT cadre on the ground of marriage to Devesh Kumar, 2012 batch AGMUT cadre IPS officer.
But…
The comments of the state governments concerned have not been received. The decisions will be taken only after receiving their comments.

Ms Medha Roopam, 2014 batch AGMUT cadre IAS, sought inter-cadre transfer from AGMUT cadre to Uttar Pradesh cadre on the ground of marriage to Manish Bansal, 2014 batch UP cadre IAS.
But…Comments of the state governments concerned were sought vide letter dated April 13, 2015. A copy of the letter issued to the state government was sent to the officer on April 24, 2015.

Killu Siva Kumar Naidu, 2011 batch Manipur-Tripura cadre IAS, applied for inter-cadre transfer from Manipur-Tripura cadre to Telangana cadre on the ground of marriage to Ms Chetana Mylabathula, 2013 batch Telangana cadre IPS.
But…The comments of the state governments concerned are yet to come.

Ms Swati Srivastava, 2012 batch Chhattisgarh cadre IAS, applied for inter-cadre transfer to Uttarakhand cadre on ground of marriage to Nitin Singh Bhadauria, 2011 batch Uttarakhand cadre IAS.
But…No consent from the government of Chhattisgarh has come as yet though the letter of the officer was forwarded to it on March 25, 2015.

2 comments:

  1. And what about those IAS officers married to IFS diplomat spouses ? Hon"ble PM has asked officers to spend quality time with the family. Some policy rethink is required to enable them to spend at least half their lives together. Half well done is better than full not done well. Is someone listening ???

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  2. You've pointed out something that needs systemic correction. As of now, no rule or regulation exists for their case. From preliminary figures, such IAS-IFS diplomat couples are less than 10 in no. in the last 15 years. Maybe no one thought that such couples could exist when the rules were framed, much like no one thought that ladies could join IFS and be career diplomats though recently we've seen both - a lady Foreign Secretary and also a lady Minister in MEA. But still there's no rule that can help such couples to be in the same location let alone department/station.

    From what is evident, such couples can possibly spend 2-3 years together in the first half of their career if they're lucky or willing to make personal & professional 'compromises'. In the second half of their careers they may be luckier and possibly 'manage' 4-5 years in the same geographical location. That comes out to 6-8 years in around 35 years of service. Family time? Unimaginable!

    In a way, they are being penalized in their personal life for doing public service. Why didn't they marry for convenience? Love doesn't triumph in bureaucracy, more often than not. Only God (or PM? or FM?) can help them.

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