E-Paper
A NEW WAR CRY
THE PENDULUM is swinging back and forth. At one moment it raises hope for the PCS officers, the next moment it?s back in the IAS domain. And with the Allahabad High Court intervening, the IAS officers have won the first round of the battle over the State Government?s order to post PCS officers as district magistrates. The order has hit the State Government that favoured the PCS cadre. So the Uttar Pradesh PCS Association is ready for a fightback. To demonstrate its might, the PCS officers have upped its ante by raising demands for posting them on ?extra posts? of principal secretaries and secretaries.
After the High Court stayed the GO on PCS officers as DMs, Provincial Civil Service officers have come forward with another set of demands.
THE PENDULUM is swinging back and forth. At one moment it raises hope for the PCS officers, the next moment it’s back in the IAS domain. And with the Allahabad High Court intervening, the IAS officers have won the first round of the battle over the State Government’s order to post PCS officers as district magistrates.
The order has hit the State Government that favoured the PCS cadre. So the Uttar Pradesh PCS Association is ready for a fightback. To demonstrate its might, the PCS officers have upped its ante by raising demands for posting them on ‘extra posts’ of principal secretaries and secretaries.
The demands are all set to kick off another round of tug-of-war between the two hands of the babudom.
For the IAS Association it’s a piquant situation. So far it was trying to ward off the PCS threat to the DM’s seat, but the new demand. The PCS officers are also getting ready to engage the IAS Association for a longer war. The PCS Association has proposed to move an application before the HC to get enlisted as a party in the case.
This is not for the first time that the PCS Association has raised these demands. Barring one or two exceptions, the posts of principal secretaries and secretaries have so far remained in the IAS domain.
If the PCS Association is to be believed, only 12 posts of principal secretary are cadre posts. “Against 12 posts almost 40 to 50 IAS officers are working as principal secretaries to the State Government,” said UP PCS Association president Baba Hardev Singh. At the same time, only 36 posts of secretary to the State Government had been declared cadre posts, he said. He added against this strength, at least 40-50 IAS officers were working on these posts.
Singh demanded that on posts other than the ‘cadre posts’ PCS officers should be posted.
The PCS Association has also raised the issue of vacant posts of joint secretaries. At least 30 cadre posts of the IAS in joint secretary rank were lying vacant, he said. As per the provisions of Rule-11 of the IAS (Cadre) Rules-1954 the posts could not remain vacant. Hence the State Government should post IAS officers on these posts, Singh said.
So how will the UP IAS Association react to the move? This is a million-dollar question making rounds in the corridors of power.
Senior officers have already asserted that the State Government was within its rights to create additional posts and post IAS officers on them. The IAS Association, however, may find it difficult to convince political bosses who appear inclined to buy the PCS point of view.
In such a scenario, the IAS Association may find it difficult to withstand the pressure. Senior IAS officers already say that the PCS intrusion into areas of IAS domain will mark the beginning of the end of the glorious IAS era. IAS officers point out how the elite cadre has been made to fight a legal battle to get justice. The IAS Association had earlier moved an application in the Supreme Court during the tenure of Mayawati as Chief Minister. It had urged the apex court to hear its point of view on the issue of transfer of IAS and All India Service Officers.
This forced the State Government to file an affidavit in the apex court. The government told the court about the setting up of an establishment board and a minimum two-year tenure had been fixed for IAS and the PCS officers. The IAS Association hopes that its fight on the issue of cadre posts too will yield good results.
In its petition in the HC, the IAS Association has contended that the posts of District Magistrates were cadre posts of the IAS. Hence no non-cadre officer could be posted on them. The IAS Association pointed out that the State Government’s order posting PCS officers were not only unlawful but also against public interest.
The IAS Association has quoted the IAS Cadre Rules to drive home its point. The IAS Cadre Rules have been framed by the Central Government after consultation with the State Governments, in exercise of its powers conferred on it under Section-3 (1) of the All India Services Act. Hence, provisions contained therein were mandatory and statutory in nature and violation of the rules was absolutely unlawful, the Association said while contending that 70 posts of the District Magistrates have been declared as cadre posts as given in the Indian Administrative Service (Fixation of Cadre Strength) Regulations, 1955, and amended from time to time.
