Bureaucratic reshuffle: 11 new Joint Secretaries appointed

A total of 11 officers have been appointed as Joint Secretaries to various central government ministries as part of mid-level bureacuractic reshuffle effected today by the government.
Of these, only three are Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers while the rest belong to other services like railways and revenue.
Anugraha Narayana Das, a 1991 batch officer of Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS), was made an Additional Financial Adviser and Joint Secretary in Defence Ministry, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training said.
IPS officer Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta has been appointed as Joint Secretary in Department of Heavy Industry. L Indumathy, a Central Secretariat Service officer, has been appointed as Secretary, Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), a Joint Secretary level post.

Archana Agrawal, a 1990 batch IAS of UP Cadre, has been appointed in the Ministry of Power, T K Manoj Kumar, a 1987 batch IAS of Kerala cadre, has been appointed in the Department of Food and Public Distribution on later shift basis from Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs.
M L Srivastava, 1989-batch Indian Forest Service officer of Sikkim cadre, has been appointed in Ministry of Culture, Asheesh Sharma, 1997 batch IAS from Maharashtra cadre, will be joining Ministry of Skill Development, Rajvir Singh, an Indian Accounts and Auditing Service officer of 1991 batch, will be joining Department of Sports.

Central Secretariat Service officer of 1998 batch, Anil Bahuguna will be joining Department of Consumer Affairs while M C Luther of 2000 batch from the service will be joining Department of Personnel and Training on lateral shift basis from the Minister of Overseas Affairs.

They alleged that amending the 1996 CSS Scheme, in 2001,
an arbitrary condition of "differential of two years between the IAS officers and that of other services was inserted to discriminate in favour of IAS".
As a result of this two years differential, Secretary level empanelment for Services other than IAS takes place after 35 years of service and added to that there is residual service requirement of one year, they said, adding therefore most of the officers retire by that time.

Similarly, at the Additional Secretary level empanelment take place after 32 years of service and with three years residual service restriction, again many officers go out of the eligibility zone, they said.
"Besides this, the Selection Committee of Secretaries (SCoS) comprises only of IAS officers and none from other Group A services. The empanelment of other Group A officers from Secretary and Additional Secretary is deliberately delayed and that too, not held annually by the SCoS, whereas for IAS, the empanelment for Secretary post is held regularly every year," they alleged.
"There is clear conflict of interest as the Screening Committee of Secretaries comprising of all IAS officers, unduly favours their own service and empanel and select only from IAS, for all posts of Secretary and AS, depriving all other All India Services and Central Services Group A from such empanelment and selection," it alleged.

It urged the Prime Minister that there should be parity amongst various services in empanelment and selection for posts at senior levels.
They also demanded that the process to empanelment of other services group A officers of 1982 and 1983 batches for the level of Secretary may be directed to expedited and completed before empanelment of any more IAS officers is done, and also batches upto 1986 for all services for the level of Additional Secretary.