Draft Transfer Policy of CGDA

After long persuasion in JCM-IIIrd level meetings with the staff side members of AIDAEA (HQ) Kolkata  Hon'ble CGDA is pleased to propose the following Draft Transfer Policy. The same has also  been  displayed  online of the CGDA website. All CEC members/General Secretary of Branch Associations/DADCCs may send their opinions/suggestions in consultation with staff members to our e-mail address : www.aidaeakol@gmail.com by 20th July 2013, so that AIDAEA (HQ) may sum up the matter and transmit the same to the HQr. office.

POLICY GUIDELINES FOR REGULATING TRANSFERS

Scope

1. The criteria laid down in the succeeding paragraphs will be observed by the Controllers in effecting transfers of staff within their jurisdiction. Transfers ordered on administrative/disciplinary or compassionate grounds and that of new recruits will be outside the purview of the transfer policy.

Categorisation of stations and tenures

2.1          All stations where offices of the Department (including HQrs of the Controllers) are located, will be categorized under the following two broad categories :

(a)    Hard/Tenure stations (As per Annex-I)

(b)   Others

2.2          A tenure will be fixed for hard/tenure stations. An individual who completes the prescribed tenure at a hard/tenure station will be transferred out, except as otherwise provided for.

2.3          The normal tenure in other offices/stations shall be three years. Exceptions can however be made on compassionate grounds of administrative exigency. Continuance of an individual at these stations beyond three years is subject to the overriding conditions that (a) it is not necessary to immediately transfer him/her to meet a requirement elsewhere and (b) there is no legitimate claimant for the station where he is serving.

2.4          In determining whether a person has completed the tenure at a station, authorized period of leave up to a maximum of one month in a year will be reckoned as service at the station.  Controllers will have the discretion to make marginal adjustments in the prescribed tenure, where warranted.

2.5          An individual will not normally be retained at any station for a continuous period exceeding 15 years and in the same office for more than 05 years.

2.6          Notwithstanding the tenure prescribed for a station an individual employed in a office/post involving substantial third party payment related to work will be transferred out on completion of tenure fixed for assignment, unless he/she can be accommodated in another office which does not have such payment function, till he/she is due to be posted out of the station.

Transfers from hard/tenure station

3.1          An individual who has completed his/her tenure at a hard station will be asked to give three stations of his choice, in order of preference. His/She will be accommodated at one of these stations. This shall however not be applicable for staff belonging to the concerned area/region and their repatriation to choice stations shall be considered as per turn. An individual who has completed his/her tenure at a tenure station shall be considered for repatriationto one of his/her choice stations to the extent administratively feasible.

3.2          If an individual wishes to continue at a hard/tenure station after completion of prescribed tenure, he may be allowed to do so, if it is administratively feasible.

3.3          To ensure timely repatriation of staff from the hard/tenure stations, advance action preferably 6 months before completion of tenure shall be taken so that transfer orders in respect of such staff are issued at least a month before the date of completion of tenure.

3.4          Since the relieving of the staff posted in these stations is linked to reporting of substitutes, the staff posted in to these stations shall be relieved promptly.

Manning of vacancies at hard/tenure stations

4.            Selection of staff for manning vacancies at hard/tenure stations will be made from amongst the following:

(i)            Volunteers for that station.

(ii)           Individuals who have completed their tenure stations and have not served at any hard/tenure station earlier. If there are a number of such individuals serving at various other stations, the criterion for selection will be the inter se seniority, determined on the basis of length of service at the present station (s) beyond the minimum tenure prescribed.

(iii)          Individuals who have completed their tenure at other stations, and had served earlier at a hard/tenure station for the prescribed period. The criterion for selection will be the same as laid down in (ii) above, except that the person who had served earliest at a hard/tenure station, will be moved first.

Transfer from other stations

5.            Transfers from other than hard/tenure stations will be effected in the following circumstances :

(i)                  To fill vacancies at hard/tenure stations, the selection being made in accordance with the criteria prescribed in para 4 above.

(ii)                To meet the shortages in another station/accommodate volunteers. If a selection has to be made from among a number of individuals serving at various other stations who have completed their tenure, the criteria for selection will be length of service at their present station, beyond the minimum stay prescribed.

(iii)               If the number of such individuals is appreciable, their transfers may be affected in convenient batches, strictly on the basis of seniority of service at the station.

Staffing of vacancies at other stations

6.            Selection of staff for filling vacancies at other stations will be made from amongst the following, in that order :

(i)                  Individual due for transfer from hard/tenure stations on completion of tenure.

(ii)                Those who have completed fifty eight years of age desire to be repatriated to a station of choice, provided they have completed at least two years service at the present station. In making a selection from amongst such individuals, preference will be given to those who have not at all served earlier at the station or whose services at the desired station have been the least.

(iii)               Out of volunteers from other stations, who have put in at least three years service at their present station.

Transfers to offices having a substantial third party payment function

7.1          To ensure an acceptable level of efficiency in discharge of this function due weightage shall be given to the APAR profile of the available staff. A minimum cooling off of three years between two such assignments shall however be ensured and normally not more than three such tenures shall be allowed unless there are no other eligible staff available.

7.2          Timely rotation of staff in such offices shall be monitored by the PCsDA/CsDA.

Exemption from transfer/deferment

8.1   Exemptions/deferments can be considered in the following circumstances :

(i) In case where an employee or a member of his family is suffering from serious ailments such as Cancer, Polio, blindness, mental disease, paralysis etc., PCsDA/CsDA may at their discretion grant exemptions from transfers for a specific/limited period provided the disease is certified by the authorized specialists and supported by medical documents/papers. The case may be reviewed before the period of exemption is over.

Physically challenged employees may be granted exemption from transfer taking into account the seriousness of the physical disability of the employee due to loss of limbs, spinal cord injuries, paralysis, visual disability etc.

In case physically disabled employees are considered for transfer, from a station, efforts shall be made to accommodate them within the same state/region at stations where adequate medical facilities are available.

(ii) Individuals whose children are incurably deaf and dumb (as certified by the appropriate specialists) and are studying in a school for the Deaf and Dumb will be transferred only to stations where schooling facilities for such children are available.

(iii) If an individual or his wife/child is suffering from TB, the transfer may be deferred for the period of treatment, on the specific recommendation of the Specialist attending on the case.

(iv)On educational grounds where the child is in Class X th/XII th.

(v) Single parents of children upto the age of 18 years.

(vi)Subject/domain experts so identified by the Controllers. Utmost care shall be exercised to ensure that such exceptions are not made in a routine manner. Such exemptions shall be reviewed on an annual basis.

(vii)Similarly, members of the core developing team for various IT systems, as certified by the EDP Wing of the CGDA office, shall be exempt from transfers. Any requests for transfers in respect of members of this team shall be entertained only as per the recommendation of EDP Wing.

8.2   Where both husband and wife are serving in the Department, they shall be posted to the same station, as far as administratively possible, keeping in view the spirit of orders issued by DoPT from time to time. Other spouse cases shall also be governed as per the orders issued by DoPT on the subject, as far as administratively feasible.

8.3   Where for administrative/other reasons it is not possible to accommodate the spouse in the place of posting of the husband/wife, preference shall be given in repatriation to the place of posting of the spouse upon completion of two years.

8.4   Office bearers of HQrs and Branch Association shall be governed by provisions of 376 of OM Part I as amended vide HQrs office communication 21/3/12, i.e. “Members of Joint Consultative Machinery nominated by the recognized  HQrs Associations will be exempted from transfer so long as they hold these memberships except for administrative exigency. The President and the General Secretary of the Headquarters Associations and Branch Associations at the Headquarters office of Principal Controllers/Controllers will also be exempted from transfer during the first year of their appointment except for administrative exigency”. In so far as the Branch Associations are concerned only a one-time exemption (whether one term as President/General Secretary or one ROC term) shall be allowed.

8.5   Individuals over fifty eight years of age who wish to continue at their present station, will be exempted from transfer.

8.6   Care shall be taken to post ladies at a station of their choice or at a convenient distance from the station of present posting to the extent feasible. In such cases they shall also be eligible for repatriation to their choice station upon completion of two years and priority shall be given to such cases.

Transfer on promotion

9.            Promotion within the clerical grade will not automatically entail transfer of an individual. When the promotion is to the Supervisor (A/cs)/AAO or AOs grade, the deployment of the individual will depend, inter alia, on such factors as administrative requirements, availability of vacancy, choice station etc.

State/Own expenses

10.          Transfers effected on completion of a physical stay of three years on the station shall be at state expense. Transfer on promotion, administrative grounds and completion of tenure on hard/tenure station shall however be regulated separately. In exceptional circumstances, competent authority may waive the condition of minimum stay of station.

Periodicity of transfers

11.          To the extent it is administratively feasible; transfers shall be effected in a manner so as to coincide with the end/beginning of academic session.

General principles governing inter-command transfers

12.1        Transfers shall be effected by HQs office from time to time to address inter-command/station shortages and to provide an opportunity to staff to serve in stations of their choice. Such transfers shall be effected through the half-yearly transfer exercise-in October and April. The main exercise shall be carried out in October and volunteers not accommodated in the exercise, shall be automatically carried forward to April list. Thus only fresh requests or change requests are to be furnished under the April list.

12.2        Such cases shall be forwarded by the respective Controllers alongwith their recommendation. Where a particular case is not recommended, the reasons for the same should be invariably indicated, failing which these remarks can be ignored.

While considering repatriation cases/requests from volunteers, consideration shall be given to factors such as, distance from the station of choice, stay away period from the choice station, whether served before, home town, age, gender, physical disability etc.

12.3        Where inter-command transfers of the staff are effected on station seniority basis, effort will be made to post them within the same region, subject to availability of vacancies.

12.4        In the case of static offices, batches of staff shall be posted out at convenient intervals, to offices within the station or outstation, depending on administrative requirements, so as to also provide a wider exposure to the staff. Instances of stay in the same office beyond 10 years ought to be gradually minimized.

12.5        Effort shall be made to give consideration to the experience profile of the staff while deciding their office of posting. This however will be subject to availability of vacancies.

12.6        Staff with a continuous tenure of more than 5 years under one command can request for change through the half yearly exercise. The same shall be considered, whether at the same station of outside, depending on administrative feasibility.

Centrally controlled stations

13.1        Transfers to the northern region presently being controlled by HQs office and regulated , shall be governed separately as per orders issued from time to time.

13.2        Transfers to Port Blair and Bhutan shall continue to be effected by the HQs office through a separate Panel.

13.3        Postings in and out of Kerala shall also continue to be centrally controlled.

13.4        Transfers from and to all other stations/offices shall be effected by PCA(Fys)/PCsDA/Controllers within their jurisdiction as per their administrative requirements.

14.          The above indicative guidelines are meant to guide the exercise of transfer of staff to the extent administratively feasible. These guidelines are not intended to create any entitlement of any kind.

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ANNEXURE-I

LIST OF HARD STATIONS

Sl.	Station	Orgn.	Tenure(Yrs)	Remarks
1	Along (AP)	BR	3
2	Aruvankadu	FYS	3
3	Bharderwah (J&K)	NC	2
4	Bhuj	SC	2
5	Chanda (Chandrapura)	FYS	3
6	Camp-bell Bay (A & N islands)	IDS	1	May remove
7	Chabua	GHTY	3
8	Dinjan	GHTY	2
9	Dharangadhara	SC	2
10	Khepong	PATNA	2	May remove
11	Khonsa (AP)	BR	3
12	Leh	NC/BR/PD	2
13	NAL (Bikaner)	AF/SWC	2
14	Port Blair	BR/IDS	2
15	Seling	BR	3
16	Srinagar	BR/PD/NC	2
17	Surankot	NC	2
18	Tezu (AP)	BR	3
19	Tengavalley	BR/GTHY	3
20	Varangaon	FYS	3
21	Zakhma (Nagaland)	GHTY	2
22	Poonch	NC	2
23	Partapur	NC	2
24	Kargil	NC/BR	2
25	Sopore	NC	2
26	Baramullah	NC	2
27	Kupwara	NC	2
28	Jagdalpur	R&D	2

LIST OF TENURE STATIONS

Sl.	Station	Orgn.	Tenure(Yrs)
1	Adampur	AF	3
2	Aurangabad	SC	3
3	Babina	CC	3
4	Bidar	AF/BL	2/3
5	Bengdubi	PATNA	3
6	Bagdogra	PATNA/AF	3
7	Barapani (Umroi)	GHTY	3
8	Bolangir	FYS	2
9	Chilka	PATNA	3
10	Darjeeling (Kalimpong)	PATNA	3
11	Dam-Din	PATNA	3
12	Fatehgarh	CC	2
13	Gwalior (Maharajpur)	AF	3
14	Halwara	AF	3
15	Hazaratpur	FYS	3
16	Hashimara	PATNA	3
17	Itarsi	JBP/FYS	3
18	Jodhpur	AF/BR	3
19	Jorhat	AF	2
20	Jamnagar	AF/SC	3
21	Joshimath	SC/BR	3
22	Koraput(HAL)	BANGALORE	2
23	Kalaikunda	AF/PATNA	3
24	Khaprail	PATNA	3
25	Lansdowne	ARMY	2
26	Lunglih	GHTY	3
27	Medak	FYS	3
28	Pulgaon	SC	3
29	Panagarh	PATNA	3
30	Panitola	GHTY	2
31	Pachmari	JBP	3
32	Ramgarh	PATNA	3
33	Ranikhet	ARMY	2
34	Rajouri	BR/PD/NC	2
35	Ranagapahar	GHTY	2
36	Suratgarh	SWC	2
37	Sirsa	SWC	3
38	Subathu	WC	3
39	Shillong	AF	2
40	Saugor	JBP	3
41	Singarsi	PATNA	3
42	Wellington	CHENNAI	3
43	Gopalpur	SC	2
44	Lalgarh Jattan	SWC	3