Pertaining to the resentment expressed by several members of the IAS association regarding the existing system of office bearers, the IAS association has come up with the decision to democratically elect its office bearers, after seven years of officially registering itself as a society.
National health mission director and secretary (agriculture), Rathan U Kelkar would act as the returning officer and the election will be conducted using online election software. The association had marked 28th December as the last day to clear its membership dues and the final voter’s list will be published on Friday.
It has come to notice that even after several requests, several members of the association have not paid their membership fee for years, even after the decision regarding elections came to light. About 150 serving officers, both in the state as well as outside on deputation belonging to state cadre, are members of the IAS association. Various members have kept their opinion that if a member has not paid his subscription fees at least once in the last two years, then he/she shall not take part in the voting process.
The association was officially registered as a society in October 2013, even though it had been functioning at an informal level since earlier. Since then, it has been acting as a pressure group on service matters concerning the IAS fraternity and on issues concerning the individual members of the service.
“To function legitimately as a formal society as it has been registered, there should be a formal election of the office-bearers. There is a strong resentment among young officials regarding the functioning of the association as hardly anything has been done to address their issues,” an IAS official, who recently completed his tenure in the field, said on condition of anonymity.
One of the main issues that the officials have been stating is of the lack of accommodation facilities while they are posted to the capital. Also, the state is probably the only cadre where the officials are denied allowances for the multiple charges being held by them.
“The association is expected to address these issues, and till now, unfortunately, there has been no concrete action on these matters. Once the office-bearers are elected, they might feel more responsible towards the matters concerning the members,” another official added.
