Recently, Mr. Jitendra Singh, the Minister of State for Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), raised the issue of streamlining IAS appointments in Parliament. According to an order of the DoPT, only 33 of the 73 appointments made by the Union government in the past four weeks were of IAS officers. This means that majority of appointments were of non-IAS officers.
Although the central government has brought a training program to promote non-IAS officers to the ranks of joint secretaries, directors and deputy directors, this has created a debate as to whether it is right to appoint non-IAS in such high positions, especially to the rank of a Joint Secretary.
Indian Masterminds spoke to few retired civil servants who had held very senior positions during their time, to know about their opinions on this matter, and this is what they had to say.
PREVIOUS GOVTS ARE TO BE BLAMED
Retired IAS officer of UP cadre, Mr. Vijay Shankar Pandey, said that posts are vacant and there are no officers available to be appointed. He attributed this situation to the previous governments.
“All this has happened because of the mistakes that previous governments committed. During 1900s, the government cut down the number of IAS and it continued. They were lacking in vision for the future and that is why this situation has arisen,” he said.
He further said that previously also, people from other central services were given these posts, and there is nothing wrong in it. “Hiring must be done based on the capabilities, merits and talents. Ultimately the country should be in a better position. Nothing else matters.”
Former Chief Secretary of UP, Mr. Alok Ranjan, also holds a somewhat similar opinion. However, he adds a word of caution: “It is okay till the officers are taken from the centralised forces. The government should not take people from outside. If they need to, they should hire for specific task only, and aim for people with special skill and expertise in that area. However, it should be a general practise only, not for a high position like a Joint Secretary, as it is an important position for IAS cadre.”
He also said that if the government is facing lack of officers for suitable positions, then they should increase the intake of the IAS officers.
LATERAL ENTRY IS NOT WRONG
Retired IPS officer and Former DGP of Uttarakhand, Mr. Anil Raturi, doesn’t find any problem in lateral entry. He said, “It is completely fine. If people are talented, then they could be assigned tasks. Cadre or services should not act as a barrier. Besides, the government has a full-fledged procedure to hire anybody.”
MID-TERM EVALUATION IS REQUIRED
However, retired IAS officer and former CMD of Air-India, Mr. Rohit Nandan opposes this type of entry and wants the focus to be on evaluation, instead. He said, “I think it is a foolish concept. The services of experts have always been available to the government through consultants and advisors. The only change is that, in this new dispensation, the experts have to record their advice on files and take responsibility for it. It’s worth examination what has actually happened on the files dealt with by these Joint Secretaries, and whether they initiated any proposal at their level for decision making. I am personally of the opinion that a mid-term evaluation of the success of this experiment should be carried out by a genuine external agency to arrive at any conclusion about the performance of the scheme.”
As far as the impact on the IAS cadre is concerned, he feels that it has had a minimal effect and the dominance of the regular bureaucracy has not changed. “You might be aware that some lateral appointees have quit because they felt that the system refused to accept them,” he said in conclusion.
