For Ajay Singh Baraik the night before his first day in the office here on Thursday as S D O Sadar was tumultuous as the outgoing SDO Sadar Surjit Kumar Singh was too reluctant to hand over the charge, said sources. They said that the outgoing SDO Sadar had pinned hope that his transfer would be stayed by the government and Baraik would have to take a return journey to Ranchi. He was buying time for this. However, Singh's hopes dashed on Wednesday evening. A civil society activist sent a tweet to CMO explaining how a tribal officer was harassed and denied taking over charge of the post of SDO Sadar here. Sources said the CMO took immediate note of this tweet and intervened in the matter resulting in Baraik taking the charge from the outgoing SDO Sadar Singh.
Baraik said he took charge late in the evening of Wednesday and Thursday was his first day in the office today. Sources said in the past five years or so there had never arisen such a situation like this as Baraik said he was made to wait by the outgoing SDO Sadar for days together here for no reason except that the fellow was all hopes that he (outgoing SDO Sadar) would be allowed by the government to stay put as SDOS.
A close acquaintance of Baraik, Mumtaz Ahmad Khan said the tweet and intervention of the CMO came as a watershed on the entire plan of the outgoing SDO.