New Delhi, Sep 30 (IANS): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has transferred over 200 ministerial staff, who have spent over 10 years on the same post, at its various branches across the country, an agency official said on Monday.

The move aimed at maintaining fairness and integrity comprised shifting of lower division clerks (LDCs), upper division clerks (UDCs) and crime assistants - but within the same city they were posted in.

These transfers are learnt to be part of rotation exercise of those who have been deputed in one unit for an extended period and their conduct and work culture was "severely affecting the discipline of the agency".

The CBI staffers were transferred on September 20 after a meeting held by top brass of the agency headed by its Director Rishi Kumar Shukla.

"It is part of an exercise carried out to rotate the personnel who have remained in the same post for extended periods," CBI Spokesperson Nitin Wakankar told IANS.

As per the officer, over 150 LDCs, 50 UDCs and around 25 crime assistants - lower in rank to Section Officers - have been transferred.

He said that those got promotions in these ranks have also been transferred.

The 200 odd transfers have been done in 10 stations of the CBI but within the same city, Wakankar said, adding the move is not new for the agency and that all government departments do it on particular period.

The officer, however, refuted that these transferred had any link to the controversy which erupted in the CBI last year as agency's then Director Alok Verma and then Special Director Rakesh Asthana engaged in a bitter fight and levelled charges of corruption against each other.