A Madhya Pradesh bureaucrat was transferred for the fourth time in a year on Saturday, prompting her to write to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Association, saying she is an easy target for even her subordinates. She asked how she is supposed to work when her tenures are two to three months long.
“By the time I understand the charge, I get removed,” said Neha Marvya, a 2011 batch IAS officer.
Marvya’s fresh transfer, less than two months after she took charge as the Tribal Area Development Project director, came days after employees staged a pen-down protest against her after she issued notices seeking explanations. She was named the Madhya Pradesh Scheduled Tribe Finance and Development Corporation managing director (equivalent to additional secretary). Marvya questioned whether an IAS officer could be so vulnerable that subordinates could dictate postings. She asked what she did within a month to deserve this. “An officer hardly understands the work in a month. Yet I have been humiliated by this transfer. Marvya added that repeated short tenures had left her demoralised. “I have kept patience for years, hoping things would improve, but now subordinates have started threatening me. Always conspirators win, and I fail. The system has failed me.
In January 2025, Marvya was removed after eight months of taking over as the Dindori collector. Her dispute with then-collector OP Srivastava over vehicle payments made headlines while she served as the Shivpuri district panchayat chief executive officer in 2017. In 2022, she alleged that principal secretary Manish Rastogi denied her entry to assume charge of her posting in the revenue department.
Today it is me, tomorrow another IAS officer will be the target,” she wrote to the association, which has not reacted to her letter.
There was immediate response from the government.
