The West Bengal government has barred its departments from transferring or deploying Secretariat common-cadre employees to directorates and regional offices without written approval from the Common Cadre Wing of the Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department.
The directive, issued by the state’s Administrative Reforms and Personnel Deployment Department, follows the administration’s observation that several departments had been assigning Secretariat cadre employees to other offices without obtaining prior clearance from the authority responsible for managing the cadre, according to a report by Anandabazar.
The instruction states that no department or division can transfer or appoint a Secretariat cadre employee to a directorate or regional-level office without the Common Cadre Wing’s written approval. Departments have been directed to stop such unilateral decisions immediately.
If an employee is required at a directorate or regional organisation for operational reasons, the concerned department must first submit a formal proposal to the Common Cadre Wing of the Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department. The deployment can be implemented only after the wing grants its final approval.
The directive was signed by a senior special secretary and circulated to the additional chief secretary, principal secretary and secretaries of all departments at Nabanna. The recipients have been instructed to ensure strict compliance with the order.
The state administration’s action comes after senior officials reportedly found that departments were placing common-cadre employees in directorates and regional offices without following the prescribed procedure. The arrangement bypassed the primary cadre-management authority and created complications in the deployment and administration of Secretariat staff.
The government considers the practice a risk to administrative discipline and cadre management. The new approval requirement centralises decisions on such postings with the Common Cadre Wing, while allowing departments to seek staff for operational needs through a defined process.
The directive also places responsibility on individual departments to justify any proposed deployment before it is approved. Its immediate effect is to prevent departments from making independent transfers or appointments involving Secretariat common-cadre employees and to require prior scrutiny by the designated personnel authority.
