Staff in tribal area to be transferred out if guilty of communal, caste bias

Government employees posted in the tribal areas of Rajasthan could lose the immunity against transfers and be shunted out if they are found to be involved in communal clashes or are guilty of caste or class bias.

For this, the Vasundhara Raje government is considering an amendment to the Rajasthan Scheduled Areas Subordinate, Ministerial and Class IV Service (Recruitment and Other Service Conditions) Rules 2014.

The Commissionerate of the Tribal Area Development Department based in Udaipur has already prepared a draft and sent it to the department of personnel and training (DoPT) for its consideration.

The draft states that an employee can be transferred out of the tribal sub plan area if, on a report by the department head, collector or any other government agency, he or she is found to be involved in communal riots or in offences against the state, or involved in fanning communal or class divide or disturbing public peace

It states that that a person employed in the tribal area service will be allowed a one-time transfer during his or her tenure outside the tribal sub-plan area.

The draft also lists other conditions under which a transfer outside the scheduled areas will be allowed. These include a woman who is a widow or single, a woman who gets married to a government employee who is employed in a non-tribal area, in cases of serious diseases, those who are visually impaired or have more than 40% disability.

An officer in the tribal area development department denied knowledge of any such draft. He, however, said the government was considering relaxing the rules so that those posted in tribal areas could be posted out and those from outside get a posting in tribal areas.

Bhaskar Sawant, secretary, DoPT, confirmed that a relaxation in the rules was being considered as there were some operational difficulties. “There are cases of government employees from tribal sub-plan areas who are married to women from other districts who then cannot work in the tribal sub-plan area.”

The BJP government had in 2014 formed a closed cadre for the tribal sub-plan areas to give more representation to people from tribal areas. Government employees from the tribal areas were posted in these areas and postings were not open to employees from other districts.

Scheduled Areas are those where the tribal population is more than 50%.The Centre recently approved expansion of Scheduled Areas in Rajasthan. These include the complete districts of Banswara, Dungarpur and Pratapgarh and parts of Chittorgarh, Udaipur, Rajsamand, Pali and Sirohi districts covering 3.7 lakh people.