Govt transfers Kalaburagi DC, rescinds hours later

In a surprising development, the state government withdrew the transfer orders of Kalaburagi Deputy Commissioner Sharat B within hours of issuing it on Tuesday.

The transfer of Sharat, who heads one of the worst-hit Covid-19 districts in Karnataka, raised some eyebrows.

In the order issued on Tuesday, Sharat was transferred as the executive director of the Karnataka Examinations Authority, in place of Suralkar Vikas Kishor. Sharat was to be replaced by Kishor as the Kalaburagi DC.

Questions were raised on Sharat’s transfer, which came during the peak of the pandemic. Kalaburagi has seen 44 Covid-19 cases with five deaths. It was in Kalaburagi that India’s first Covid-19 death was reported.

The Opposition latched on to the issue, criticising it as an attempt to make Sharat, a 2011 batch officer, the "scapegoat."

Former Congress minister Priyank Kharge, who represents Chittapur in Kalaburagi, criticised the transfer.

"Kalaburagi has become a theatre of the absurd. Government changes DC at the peak of the Corona Pandemic and then withdraws it in a couple of hours. Looks like the government isn’t too serious about the crisis here. Why this flip flop? It affects the morale of the officers at the district/taluk level," Kharge said in a tweet.

Sources told DH that the government decided to rescind the order after learning that Sharat might move the Karnataka/Central Administrative Tribunal challenging the transfer.