Harjot Kaur Bamhrah, a 1992 batch IAS officer who earned kudos for her handling of the Prakash Utsav, has been shifted out of the tourism department of which she was the top bureaucrat, the transfer ostensibly a fallout of last month's boat tragedy in which at least 24 people died.
An order in this regard was issued by the general administration department on Friday.
The government has also transferred Uma Shankar Prasad, the managing director of Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation. Prasad has been shifted to the animal and fisheries resources department as joint secretary.
Harjot, who was principal secretary in the tourism department, has been transferred to the mines and geology department in the same capacity. She has also been given additional charge of managing director, Bihar State Mineral Development Corporation.
Pankaj Kumar, secretary, food and consumer protection, will hold additional charge of the tourism department as well the tourism corporation.
Harjot's transfer comes just about one-and-a-half months after her name was mentioned by chief minister Nitish Kumar while he was praising his officials for successfully organising the Prakash Utsav to mark the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh. The praise had come in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had visited Patna on January 5 to take part in the event.
Harjot's performance, however, came under scanner just few days later when at least 24 people died after an overloaded unlicensed country boat capsized in the Ganga near Patna during a kite flying event organised by the tourism department on January 14 on the occasion of Makar Sankranti. The state government had ordered a high-level probe conducted by senior bureaucrat Pratyaya Amrit and deputy inspector-general of police, Patna range, Shalin. They submitted their report on February 10.
Though the state government has not made the findings of the report public, sources in the state secretariat had hinted that apart from the district administration of Patna and Saran, the probe team had also questioned the role of the tourism department in organising the kite festival and its failure to make elaborate plans for transporting people to the sandbar of the river Ganga for the event.
"Had it been a routine transfer, the government would not have shifted the tourism development corporation MD on the very day that the department's principal secretary was transferred. Nitish Kumar himself had praised Harjot and it would have been embarrassing for him to transfer her immediately after the report was submitted," said a senior bureaucrat, who requested an-onymity for obvious reasons.
The government has also moved out Saran superintendent of police Pankaj Kumar Raj. Sources said the inquiry report had mentioned that the Saran district administration had not made proper police arrangements to control the crowd during the kite festival. The Ganga sandbar, where the event had been organised, falls under the jurisdiction of Saran district.
Raj has been transferred to the state police headquarters and kept waiting in posting. Ansuiya Ransingh Sahu, SP (weaker section), CID, will ta-ke over from Raj as the Saran police chief.
