Itanagar: The Central government’s decision to transfer IAS Sanjeev Khirwar to Ladakh and his wife Rinku Dugga to Arunachal Pradesh from Delhi following the ‘dog walking row’ has sparked a furore on social media.
While some are hailing the government for taking a quick action against the IAS couple, others do not seem quite convinced that transferring the civil servants to two of the most picturesque states of the country can really be termed as a punishment.
The twitterverse too seems divided on the development.
Trinamool Congress Party MP Mahua Moitra was among the first to slam the Ministry of Home Affairs for only ‘paying lip service to the northeast’ region and then ‘treating the area like a dump’.
Moitra said the transfer of an ‘errant Delhi bureaucrat’ to Arunachal Pradesh is a shame for the northeastern state and urged Union Law minister Kiren Rijiju and Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu to protest the same.
Another twitterati who goes by the name @thekaipullai said ‘even after 70 years of independence, the worst punishment that a babu (bureaucrat) gets is a transfer.’
The user said the bureaucrat’s power would remain as it was and he will just get to exercise it in a new place.
Twitter user @manoranjanpegu said the transfer is being celebrated because people still view ‘northeast India as ‘jungle’, ‘extreme’, remote places where people should go only for punishment.’
The IAS couple was transferred by the MHA following massive outrage over reports that they used to vacate Delhi’s Thyagraj Stadium to take their dog for a walk. A picture of the couple in which they can be seen walking with their dog on athletic tracks has also gone viral on social media.
The bureaucrat couple is a 1994 batch officer of the Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories (AGMUT) cadre.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Dugga will be joining the Arunachal Pradesh health department as its secretary.
