Centre asks states to facilitate central deputation of more IAS, IPS officers; weed out ‘dead wood’

The Centre on Wednesday asked the states to spare more IAS, IPS, and IFoS officers for central deputation besides seeking their cooperation in weeding out the inefficient and corrupt employees.

The request came during the annual conference of Principal Secretaries of states/Union Territories (UTs), held to deliberate on personnel, general administration, and administrative reforms related work here.

Addressing the conference, Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said an all India service officer is an important interface of the government, both within the state as well as the Centre.

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He said there is already a structure laid down for cadre management of all India services and it needs to be followed in letter and spirit.

A particular aspect in this regard is the deployment of the all-India service officers at the Centre, the minister added.

He asked the state governments to facilitate the central deputation of IAS and other all India services officers, according to a statement issued by the Personnel Ministry.

There are three all India services – Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS). These officers are allocated a cadre, which is either a state or a group of states, or states and Union territories.

The central government has been facing a shortage of all India services officers and has been already seeking officers for central deputation from the states, officials said.

To tide over this inadequacy, the Centre had in December last year proposed changes in the service rules that give it overriding power to decide on the central deputation of the IAS, IPS, and IFoS officers, they said.

The existing rules allow mutual consultation between the Centre and the state while deciding on deputation of these officers.

At present this matter is under consideration of the central government as almost all the opposition ruled states including Odisha, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Rajasthan had opposed the move, the officials said.

Most states are also not meeting their Central Deputation Reserve (CDR) obligations and the number of officers sponsored by them to serve at the Centre is much lesser, they said.

Every cadre is allowed a CDR to ensure that officers have the opportunity to work on central deputation, which adds to their experience.

Addressing Wednesday’s conference, the Union Minister said the “central deputation is part of the federal structure in our country” as he urged the state governments to cooperate.

Singh underlined that the central government, with the sole objective of weeding out the deadwood in order to maintain a high standard of efficiency and initiative at the state/Centre, carries out intensive review of service records of members of the services which has been provided under Rule 16(3) of All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958.

The minister solicited the cooperation of the state governments in completing all such reviews pending with them expeditiously, under intimation to Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), according to the statement.

The review allows the government to retire corrupt and inefficient public servants from the service

Singh said that during the current year, the central government has successfully allotted 180 IAS officers through civil services examination and around 434 vacancies have been determined for recruitment through induction from state services that are to be filled up soon.

The minister said that he would also request the state governments to follow the guidelines related to effective service and vigilance management of all India services officers circulated by the central government from time to time.

Singh said that the conference, coming as it was after the Covid pandemic, was a revival of the tradition of annual conferences with state secretaries in charge of personnel matters to discuss and engage on matters of mutual concern and interest.

On the training aspect, he said, to get the best out of a government officer, he or she should be adequately trained.

The central government has prepared effective training modules for training its officers, he added.

Singh said that the central government has also devised a module for the state government officials, particularly those working at a cutting-edge level, and urged the state governments to take full advantage of it.

The minister said that the officers of all India services form the backbone of Indian administration and it is important that the states and the Union unite their efforts to achieve good governance of policies and programmes.

He said there is a need to have a platform where interactions at regular intervals between DoPT and other stakeholders continue to take place.

The government of India and the governments of states are the biggest employers of the country, the statement said.

“A government job is the dream job for every citizen, cutting across all sections of the society. The people look up to the government job not only because it provides the best facilities, salary package and job security but also because the selection process is open to all and is merit based,” it said.