‘I’m easy target’: Madhya Pradesh bureaucrat transferred for 4th time in a year
Neha Marvya’s fresh transfer came less than two months after she took charge as the Tribal Area Development Project director.
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).
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Marvya, who posted her letter in the association’s WhatsApp group, said she was transferred within 50 days of joining. “I have always accepted orders respectfully, but this time I feel demotivated.” She wrote that subordinates thumped her desk and threatened to get her transferred. “I reported insubordination and hoarding of files, but instead of action, I was removed.”
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. Today it is me, tomorrow another IAS officer will be the target,” she wrote to the association, which has not reacted to her letter.
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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.
There was immediate response from the government.
ABOUT THE AUTHORShruti TomarI have spent over a decade chronicling Madhya Pradesh’s political and social landscape, covering politics, investigative journalism, crime, human interest, and government policy, blending sharp insight with ground‑level depth. I have closely tracked three assembly elections, three Lok Sabha elections, leadership transitions in MP while exposing governance lapses, tender irregularities, and flawed policy rollouts. My reports have revealed gaps in the Cheetah project, irregularities in medical education, rigging in recruitment exams, and loopholes in policy implementation. In crime reporting, I have moved beyond FIRs to map systemic patterns — from organised crime networks and gender‑based violence to custodial accountability — balancing urgency with sensitivity. My journalism is defined by a commitment to human interest. I have profiled the marginalised Bancchda community, documented atrocities against tribal groups, and highlighted efforts to preserve their culture through heritage liquor and revival of spiritual practices. I have reported on farmers struggling with failed MSP promises, giving voice to those often reduced to statistics in policy files. Passionate about field reporting, I have reported on rampant sand mining in Chambal and Narmada, pharmaceutical companies supplying medicines under altered names, the dire condition of schools and colleges, the plight of commercial sex workers, and skewed sex ratios in specific districts. Beyond deadlines, and as HT’s state correspondent and assistant editor in Madhya Pradesh, I engage with ministers, farmers, students, and activists, believing the best policy stories begin with a single human voice. A postgraduate in Journalism and Mass Communication, I also hold a diploma in sports journalism.Read More

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