Trinamool Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra hit out at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) over the transfer of IAS officer Rinku Dugga while asking the Home Ministry to stop treating Arunachal Pradesh as place to “dump your rubbish”. In her tweet directed at Union Minister Kiren Rijiju and Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu, Moitra referred to the transfer of IAS couple Rinku Dugga and Sanjeev Khirwar, who were caught on camera by The Indian Express walking their dog on athletes’ track after getting the Delhi stadium emptied, to Arunachal and Ladakh respectively.
She asked Rijiju and Khandu, both from the BJP and belong to the state, to protest against the MHA’s move to treat Arunachal as their “dumping ground”.
While continuing her tirade on Twitter, Moitra said that the transfer of an ‘errant Delhi bureaucrat’ was a blot on the state.
The Indian Express reported that a Delhi government-run stadium was cleared and athletes asked to leave by 7, way before their scheduled end time for the practice, just so that the IAS couple could walk their dog. Few minutes after the IE report, the Delhi government directed all sports facilities in the state to be open till 10 pm. Later in the day, the IAS couple was transferred out of Delhi.
“Why are people calling Ladakh a “punishment posting”? For one it’s a beautiful place with very hospitable people & some stunning places to visit and secondly it’s demoralising for the people there to be given the impression that officers only get sent as a punishment. And I’m sure the same applies to Arunachal, even though I’ve never visited the area,” former Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah tweeted.
Khirwar was posted as the divisional commissioner and principal secretary (revenue) of the Delhi government, while Rinku Dugga was the secretary of Land and Building, Delhi government.