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UP IAS Association president’s post lying vacant
The association, once known for its exercise of introspection and effectively taking up issues with the government, is going without a president for the past six months. The post has been lying vacant since the death of Deepak Trivedi (1985), who died due to Covid-19 on April 29 a day before his retirement.
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh IAS Association is yet to appoint a president, after the death of the incumbent in April this year due to Covid-19. It is also yet to hold its annual event, the IAS Week, in keeping with the resolution adopted on January 19, 2013, declaring that the IAS Week will be held every year.
The association, once known for its exercise of introspection and effectively taking up issues with the government, is going headless for the past six months. It has not been able to appoint a new president following death of the incumbent and chairman Uttar Pradesh Revenue Board Deepak Trivedi (1985), who died due to Covid-19 on April 29 a day before his retirement.
As per the established norms, the association requests the senior-most IAS officer to take over as the organisation’s president whenever a vacancy arises. So Mohammad Iftikharuddin (1985), being the next senior-most officer posted in the state, would have been the association’s obvious choice.
The association, however, has apparently not taken a call on the issue. “Iftikharuddin has not taken over as the association’s president. He has not signed any paper,” said a senior IAS officer. Iftikharuddin was not available for comments. He is facing a SIT probe after a video purportedly showing him preaching Islam and allegedly making a pitch for conversions at his official residence in 2014-2016 surfaced.
Iftikharuddin was then posted as the commissioner of Kanpur division. The state government ordered SIT probe against him on September 28 this year.
“The association does not have any president as of now. It has not decided anything about making an appointment on the post. We will let everybody know once a decision is taken,” said a senior IAS officer.
The association has also not taken a call on holding its annual IAS Week. On January 19, 2013 the Uttar Pradesh IAS Association resolved to hold the IAS Week and the Annual General Meeting (AGM) every year.
The association decided to pass the resolution as it was not able to hold the week for five years from 2007 to 2012. After adopting the resolution, the association held the week and the AGM in 2014, 2015 and twice in 2016. After the 2017 assembly elections, though the association organised the IAS Week in December 2017 and AGM on December 16, 2017 and later in 2019 with AGM on February 2, 2019, unfolding developments at the IAS Week (held in February 2019) remained a cause of concern for some officers. A few minutes after chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s interaction with IAS officers at the senior administrative officers’ conference, the state government had asked the divisional commissioners and the district magistrates to rush to their respective divisions and districts to attend a video conference on February 2, 2019. The chief minister had convened the video conference to review the preparations for high school and intermediate examinations scheduled to begin on February 7, 2019. As a result, many divisional commissioners and district magistrates had to cut short their visit to Lucknow and thereby stayed away from the AGM, an integral part of the IAS Week.
The association, however, continued to make efforts to hold the IAS Week till early 2020 but spread of Covid-19 led to enforcement of restrictions in March 2020. It stopped making efforts in this direction in view of restrictions. “Our members have been busy taking steps to fight Covid-19 and enforcing restrictions up to now,” said another senior IAS officer. The association has only a few weeks left to hold the week. Uttar Pradesh assembly elections are due early in 2022 and the state is likely to go into poll mode in the next few weeks. Asked whether the association proposed to hold the event in the next few weeks, an office -bearer of the UP IAS Association said “We can’t say anything. We can’t predict anything about holding the IAS Week this time. It’s a matter of three days only.”
