HYDERABAD: In an unprecedented move, director general of police V Dinesh Reddy recently transferred more than 50 deputy superintendents of police (DSP) across the state. Although as head of the police establishment board Dinesh Reddy is entitled to exercise this power, what is unusual is that this is the first time that the police chief has effected the transfers without yielding to pressure. In the past, the home and other sundry ministers have prevailed upon successive police bosses to post DSPs of their choice in areas of interest to them.

But this time around, the recommendations made by home minister Sabita Reddy , finance minister Anam Ramnarayana Reddy , PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana, tourism minister Vatti Vasanth Kumar and infrastructure minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao were all consigned to the dustbin.

Winds of change – subtle but perceptible – are blowing across the bureaucracy in Andhra Pradesh. With netas in power increasingly in the dock on corruption charges, the officers have lost all respect for their political bosses and choosing to assert their right.

“We don’t want to be part of the illegal decisions that might land us in trouble at a latter day. We are asserting our moral right to take decisions which we are supposed to, without fear or favour. We are not ciphers,” a senior IAS officer told STOI.

Postings and transfers of teachers are very crucial for MLAs, MPs, MLCs and this is to protect their cadres in the villages and mandals. Teachers are perceived to wield great clout in the local politics. In the past politicians have had their say on this matter. But for the first time, more than 1,500 requests for teacher transfers did not fructify as principal secretary of education Rajeswar Tiwari refused to entertain them.

In the same vein, 2,000 excise circle inspectors – posts that are considered lucrative - were transferred by excise commissioner Sameer Sharma who turned down requests made by the political leaders. This has been much to the chagrin of in-charge excise minister K Parthasarathi.

In another example, when politicians ganged up to grab solar power tenders and bring pressure on the cabinet sub-committee on solar power to increase bench-mark price, they encountered officers like Hiralal Samaria and M Sahoo, who refused to initial on a decision favoured by the politicians. The officers lobbed the ball into the court of ministers who wanted to fire their guns from the shoulders of the former.

There is an interesting angle to the officer reassertion saga. Chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy is backing officers in what is seen as cutting troublesome ministers to size. That is why ministers’ complaints to the chief minister against their officers are falling on deaf ears.