After over 6-yr-long wait, Punam returns to home cadre!

Jaipur: Finally, after a wait that spanned six years and four months, 2005 batch IAS Punam has finally returned ‘Home.’ On Thursday, she gave her joining to DoP, having returned from Patna to Jaipur. She had gone to Bihar on inter-state deputation in October 2016. Originally, her deputation was for merely three years, but later she managed to get the tenure increased by two more years.

According to the rules, the maximum period for deputation is five years, despite this, Punam did not return to her home cadre. She sought refuge in CAT and brought stays nearly half a dozen times. Thereafter, she tried to get her cadre changed to Bihar and ran from pillar to post for this impossible task. But the state and central governments declined her pleas. When no way was left, Punam had to return to Rajasthan.

First India had published stories on this matter last month and raised the question as to why doesn’t Punam want to return to Rajasthan, even though she has served as Collector in four districts, namely Bundi, Dungarpur, Sawai Madhopur and Bikaner. It is said that owing to the ‘disgruntlement’ of a senior and ‘influential’ bureaucrat, she was apprehensive about returning to Rajasthan. Notably, as of now, DoP has put Punam on APO.