Chandigarh: According to instructions issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to Chandigarh administration, bureaucrats deputed in the city will no longer be getting extensions beyond their permissible tenures.

This means none of the IAS officers including Home Secretary, Finance Secretary, Chandigarh Housing Board Chairman and other officers holding the charge of secretaries, presently on deputation to Chandigarh Administration, will be entitled to any extension.

“The latest decision has been prompted by the controversies, like the irregularities in mega projects and land-grabbing charges, in which a number of bureaucrats have been involved or named. All these bureaucrats got extension against their requisite tenures during the regime of former UT Administrator-cum-Punjab SF Rodrigues,” a source in the Punjab Raj Bhawan said.

“Even UT Administrator-cum-Punjab Governor Shivraj V Patil has also issued stern instructions not to allow any proposal of seeking extensions for any IAS officer. He wants an end to the practice,” the source added.

According to the rules, the request for extension of an IAS officer is routed through Punjab Raj Bhawan to the Ministry of Home Affairs, based on which the MHA grants or refuses the said extension.

Recently, Finance Secretary Sanjay Kumar, a Punjab cadre IAS officer, was not granted extension; his tenure ends in December. For his replacement, the Chandigarh Administration had already sought a fresh panel of officers. Home Secretary Ram Niwas’ tenure ends in September 2011.

The practice of giving extension was very much in vogue during the Rodrigues’ tenure. It was on January 12, 2008, Rodrigues had personally wrote to the Prime Minister, seeking an extension of two years for Haryana cadre IAS officer Krishan Mohan, who was the then UT Home Secretary.