To insulate babu from neta, Centre begins to fix tenure

[karira]

UPA : DoPT fixes 2-yr term for IAS in J&K, other states to follow


NEW DELHI, MAY 30: With mass transfer of officials becoming routine every time there’s a regime change — Mayawati was the latest to order one immediately after taking charge of Uttar Pradesh — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government has started fixing ‘minimum tenure’ for officers of All India Services in the states to put an end to such a practice.

Last month, the Department of Personnel & Training fixed a two-year term for Indian Administrative Service officers in Jammu & Kashmir and next month, it plans to notify the same for IAS officers in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, sources said.

Under the new cadre rules, every officer would be assured continuity at a job for a tenure specified by the state, and any transfer — before the guaranteed tenure — can be done “only on the recommendation of a Committee on Minimum Tenure”.
The state Chief Secretary would head the three-member panel for each of the three services that would have to hear the officer who is being transferred prematurely. Moreover, it has to submit a quarterly report to the Centre “clearly stating the details of officers recommended to be transferred before the minimum prescribed tenure, with the reasons for the same”.
The same rules would also apply to the officers of the Indian Police Service and the Indian Forest Service. However, in case of IPS officers, the committee would include the Director General of Police and Home Secretary and for IFS officers, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Forest Secretary.
Transfer of officers is an important point in the link between the two with politicians using it to tame officers. The result: Officers who should be politically neutral start siding with politicians for plum posts during the latter’s rule.
However, in May 2005, Singh had assured the National Conference of District Collectors that he would refer tenure security to the National Development Council to improve the quality of administration making it more transparent and more accountable.
His view was that civil servants should be entitled to a minimum security of tenure if the country wanted transparency and accountability from their administrative masters. Since then, rules have been amended to include the above changes, and states have been asked to furnish their preference on the number of years that the officers should be provided. Besides the above three, proposals have been received from North-Eastern states, said sources. But there is no word yet from Uttar Pradesh, Punjab or Bihar where political masters use the Spoils System to promote the unholy alliance between them.

[maneesh]

This is a good news. I believe some more reforms are need in the Human resource policy and the general office working for the babus so that they can discharge there functions effectively. Now with RTI at their head they dare not stay away from work