From putting a check to their arbitrary suspensions by State Governments to provision of cars to even those in the ranks of Deputy Secretaries and Directors (as in the State) in Delhi; from ensured admissions to their wards in Sanskriti School here to a two-year reduction in the required service period in the State for being eligible for a Central deputation to meet shortage of officers — the over 4,600-member strong IAS Officers’ Association (IASOA) has placed before the Centre the set of demands and stressed the need for protecting honest officers to ensure good governance.
The delegation met MoS Jitendra Singh and asked the Government to ensure good governance by protecting honest officers. Citing instances, the IASOA said there have been past incidents in which some of the officers including Uttar Pradesh cadre Durga Sakthi Nagpal were “arbitrarily suspended”. Nagpal, a 2010-batch IAS officer, was in the news in 2013 for taking on the sand mining mafia and cracking down on illegal construction in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad district.
Nagpal was in July, 2013, suspended by the State Government, a move which was believed to have been effected at the behest of some politicians hailing from that area. Nagpal was later reinstated. She is now working as OSD to Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh.
In a memorandum submitted to Singh, who is also Minister of State for Personnel, the delegation raised various issues related to working conditions in the civil services. The association has highlighted the low availability of officers at the level of Deputy Secretary and Director, who do “leg work” in administration.
“There is a need to check arbitrary suspensions of IAS officers by State Governments. The suspensions should not be left to the whims and fancies of the states,” Association’s secretary and senior IAS officer Sanjay R Bhoosreddy. Singh has assured that he will direct the DoPT to carefully evaluate each and every suggestion made by the IAS officers and prepare a note based on them.
“There is low availability of IAS officers at Deputy Secretary and Director level. It would be better if the service period required to be put in before going on deputation to the Centre may be reduced to seven years from at present nine years,” he suggested. There are 4,619 IAS officers working in the Centre and in the states against the sanctioned strength of 6,270.
The memorandum submitted to the government said that in the states, the IAS officers are provided with certain facilities which are not available when they are deputed to the Centre. In this context, it was suggested that vehicles may be provided to all the Deputy Secretaries and Directors irrespective of their seniority when they are on deputation to the Central Secretariat.
The officers also demanded that when they are on deputation to the Centre, their children should be automatically given admission in the Sanskriti School for an un interrupted education.
Complete mid-career training to avail elevation, officers told
New Delhi: All IAS officers have been asked by the Centre to complete the mandatory mid-career training, failing which they may lose promotions and other benefits. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has written to States and Central Government Ministries to ensure that eligible IAS officers undergo the training. A list of 211 eligible IAS officers has been sent with the DoPT letter asking the States and secretaries of Central Ministries to provide them with the names of other officers eligible to attend the training from April 6 to May 22 at lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie.