In order to enforce a strict sense of discipline and accountability among bureaucrats in the state, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav has taken punitive action against 18 senior civil servants in the last over two years.
A rough estimate indicates that he has been taking disciplinary action against a bureaucrat nearly every 46 days after assuming power on December 13, 2023. This is particularly true for those heading dstrict administration and the district police. Sources say that during this period, 10 IAS officers serving as District Collectors, and eight IPS officers serving as Superintendents of Police (SPs), along with others have been removed, transferred, or suspended for major administrative lapses or failures to maintain law-and-order.
The latest action saw Guna SP Ankit Soni being removed from his post after his name in a bribery related controversy cropped up.
The action was taken after it was alleged that district police allegedly released a businessman from Gujarat after accepting a bribe of ₹20 lakh from him.
The removal of the district police head was ordered to send a message that responsibility for wrong-doing will be fixed at the command level.
Similarly, Sidhi Collector Swarochish Somvanshi was removed on the same day, after many complaints of his administrative inaccessibility were received from officials and public representatives.
Besides, he allegedly withheld a Fire No Objection Certificate for a project initiated by the local MP which aggravated dissatisfaction against him.
On January 24, another IAS officer Aditya Singh was removed from the post of Ashoknagar District Collector following allegation of bribery liked to theAnandpur Sahib Trust.However, the trust later clarified publicly that it had not filed any complaint against the Collector.
Despite that, the state government replaced him with Saket Malviya, who had been serving at the Employee Selection Board.
The removal drew attention because Aditya Singh had earlier been credited with top performance in the Election Commission’s Summary Revision process.
On January 2, the government removed IAS officers Dilip Yadav and Rohit Sisonia following the death of 23 people in Bhagirathpura area of Indore after sewage-contaminated water supply. Dilip Yadav was first shifted to Rural Development department and subsequently to the Tourism Department, while Rohit Sisonia was shifted to the state secretariat as Deputy Secretary.
On the very next day, on January 3, Kshitij Singhal was appointed new Municipal Commissioner of Indore. Besides, IAS officers Akash Singh, Prakhar Singh, and Ashish Pathak were appointed as Additional Commissioners.
The law-and-order crisis following the violence at the Gadra village that resulted in the Killing of a police officer, both Collector Ajay Srivastava and SP Rasna Thakur were removed on March 18.
Similarly, in Sagar wall collapse incident On August 4, 2024, in which nine children were killed, Collector Deepak Arya, SP Abhishek Tiwari, and SDM Sandeep Singh were removed.
Interestinglyit was later found that SP Abhishek Tiwari had been abroad for 15 days before the incident and had been seeking transfer for months.
In January 2024, Shajapur Collector Kishore Kanyal was removed after his video questioning a truck driver about his status during a nationwide transport strike went viral.
In Harda firecracker factory explosion on Feb 7, 2024, SP Sanjeev Kumar Kanchan and Collector Rishi Garg were removed. The blast had left 13 people dead and more than 75 injured.
On June 23, 2024, Seoni Collector Kshitij Singhal and SP Rakesh Kumar Singh were removed following communal tension that erupted after more than 50 slaughtered cattle were found dumped in Dhuma and Dhanora areas.
IAS officer Kshitij Singhal was later appointed Managing Director of the Madhya Kshetra Vidyut Vitaran Company while IPS officer Rakesh Kumar Singh was shifted to Police Headquarters as AIG and later posted as SP of Chhindwara.
Top officials in the government find common administrative pattern after dissecting all these cases of disciplinary actions against the bureaucrats under the Mohan Yadav government. It is like immediate fixing of district-level accountability, prompt intervention in politically sensitive cases and fast and visible action to send strong administrative signal that accountability is key to Yadav’s style of governance.
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