A fresh controversy has erupted in Madhya Pradesh's MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) department after a round of charge orders issued on June 15 and 16 effectively placed junior officers in positions above their seniors — leaving over 60 gazetted officials feeling sidelined and the department's hierarchy in disarray.

At the centre of the dispute is what insiders are calling a "charge upon charge" arrangement. Officers who hold the basic post of Assistant Manager, and are currently functioning as in-charge Managers, have been handed additional charge of General Manager at District Trade and Industry Centres (DIC) — a position significantly higher in the departmental pecking order.

Among those given GM charge are Subodh Kumar Srivastava at Mandideep, JP Tiwari at Rewa, Shivshankar Singh at Niwari, Suresh Kumar Goswami at Bhind, Rammurti Khare at Anuppur, Ajay Tiwari at Shivpuri, and BL Ahirwar at Damoh.

The orders have triggered open resentment within the department. Over 60 Class-2 gazetted officers from the 2016, 2017 and 2019 MPPSC selection batches — holding posts of Manager and Assistant Director — are currently serving in the department. Their complaint is straightforward: when regularly selected and senior officers are available, why were junior in-charge officials handed the higher responsibility?

The grievance goes deeper than just postings. Promotions in the department have been pending for a long time, officials said. While the department has stalled the regular promotion process, it is simultaneously using the in-charge route to hand senior-level responsibilities to junior officers — bypassing seniority, merit, and the formal selection process altogether. Many officials believe this arrangement runs contrary to departmental hierarchy and service rules.

Perhaps the most contentious fallout is on confidential reports. According to departmental sources, in several districts, Class-2 gazetted officers will now work under officers who originally belong to the Class-3 service cadre. This means junior officers will end up writing the CR — the annual confidential assessment — of their senior colleagues. Officials describe this as an administratively untenable situation.

No official clarification has been issued by the department so far, but the discontent is growing and questions over the administrative basis for these orders are getting louder.

This is not an isolated incident in MP's bureaucratic landscape. The Commercial Tax department recently ran into similar controversy — transfer orders there violated the department's own transfer policy, with one officer facing a transfer just four months before retirement despite a clear policy rule that those within a year of superannuation cannot be transferred. In some postings, two officers were placed on a single position while certain circles were left vacant after transfers without replacements. In Gwalior, both Joint Commissioners were moved to Indore, leaving both divisions under a single incoming officer with no second posting made. In Bhopal, a Circle Tax Officer position that carries only one post now has two officers listed against it following overlapping orders.