CAT stays Kerala governments order transferring IAS officer B Ashok

KOCHI: In yet another setback to the Kerala government, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Ernakulam Bench on Tuesday stayed its order transferring senior IAS officer Dr B Ashok to the Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department (P&ARD). With the stay, Ashok will continue as Principal Secretary (Agriculture) and Agricultural Production Commissioner. The Tribunals intervention comes just days after Ashok had rejoined the agriculture department following a previous CAT order that blocked the governments move to appoint him as chairman of the Kerala Transport Development Finance Corporation (KTDFC). He had returned from leave and resumed charge in agriculture, but within days the government issued another transfer order shifting him to P&ARD. The repeated transfer of the senior bureaucrat has now drawn back-to-back rebukes from the Tribunal, leaving the government embarrassed.