Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has written a letter to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stating that the proposed system of holding written examination for State Service officers to induct them into Indian services, whether IAS, IPS or IFS, is not proper and urged him that the present system should be continued.
In his letter, the Chief Minister said that written examination is good at the entry level in any Government service, but while in service and working for the assigned duty it leads to a whole-sale diversion of officer’s attention to the annual ritual of a competitive written examination.
At present the officers are promoted on the basis of what they do for the state during the course of their service. We cannot afford a situation where they are promoted on the basis of their self-centeredness for the promised promotion.
CM further said in the letter that the terms and conditions of employment cannot be changed to the employee’s material detriment. The detriment should be construed from a subjective point of view i.e. on the basis of the impact of the proposed change from employee’s angle. legally, the issue of re-negotiating a contract of employment cannot be decided unilaterally. Shri Chouhan said that this is akin to promoting self-interest and self-indulgence of government officers at the cost of state’s development and also of people-centeredness. This will result into an emergence of a self-involved bureaucracy at the expense of public interest.
In the letter the Chief Minister said that the cut-throat competitiveness as promoted by the new system will vitiate the esprit de corps amongst the state officials. The proposed system expects an oldster of 20 to 25 years of service to take up the cudgels against the budding youth of officials with only 8 years of service. Normally written exams are apt when the basin of talents to be recruited is wide when it is a narrow pan of claimants like what we have in our state services, the exercise of written exam appears an oddity and a wasteful and avoidable luxury.