The Centres move to amend rules for awarding cadres to successful candidates of All India Civil Services Examinations conducted by Union Public Service Commission has come in for scathing criticism from the Congress and Samajwadi Party.
Currently, candidates who manage to crack the UPSC Civil Services examination are given Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and other Central services on the basis of their ranks and merit.
They are then sent to lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (lBSNAA) for a 15-week Foundation course training. On its completion, the recruit’s branch out to service-specific trainings.
The Foundation Course consists of academic components (public administration, law and political science) and extra-curricular activities (trekking, village visits and interaction with fellow probationers). Presently it counts for 400 marks and goes towards establishing seniority within the batch.
The Union government is now assessing that if the 15-week foundation course for new recruits at lBSNAA could be turned into a scoring exercise and if the service and cadre could be allotte based on their ‘performance’ there.
The move will significantly alter the way civil servants are inducted and marks secured by candidates in Civil Services examination may not be the sole criterion for allotting them the service of their choice.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday urged students to ‘rise’, alleging their future was at risk as Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted to appoint officers chosen by the RSS by ‘manipulating’ the merit list in Civil Service examinations.
The Samajwadi Party too attacked the Prime Minister saying that the move was aimed at depriving candidates of SC, ST, OBCs and minority community of their due share in the elite All-India service.
Senior SP leader Shivpal Yadav said that the future of students was at risk and that the BJP government was attempting to pack bureaucracy with those with RSS connect.
“The Samajwadi Party condemns the Centre’s move on amendment in rules regarding cadre allotment. The examination conducted by UPSC for induction into All India services is already comprehensive and selections are made after preliminary, main exam and interview,’’ said the SP leader.
Shivpal added, “The system is working well and there is no scope for discrimination with anybody on the ground of caste and religion. If rules are amended then candidates from SC, ST, OBCs and minority community, already living in fear under the present BJP regime, will face discrimination. Hence the old system of cadre allotment should be retained.’’
The Department Of Personnel and Training (DoPT) is mulling a proposal to alter the existing process and it has sent communiques in this regard to various cadre-controlling ministries, seeking their views.
However, the idea itself is not new. In 1989, a committee headed by historian Satish Chandra recommended that the examination for recruitment be divided into three stages – preliminary examination, main examination as well as a Foundation course – before the service and cadre were allotted to successful candidates. The Committee also cited report of Kothari Committee (1974-76) headed by scientist and educationist DS Kothari, which had similar opinion.