Centre offers officers on deputation to WB, Uttarakhand

In a first, the Centre today offered officers of Central Secretariat Service (CSS), which forms the backbone of Central Government administration, to West Bengal and Uttarakhand.
"I understand that you have acute shortage of officers at middle level due to low intake of officers in civil services from 1992 to 2006. The state governments may like to utilise the experience of the CSS officers at appropriate levels on deputation basis," the Department of Personnel and Training said in letters to the Chief Secretaries of West Bengal and Uttarakhand.
The arrangement will enrich the officers with the required field experience at ground level in the execution of various schemes and policies and make them understand issues in a better way which will in turn improve their capacities, it said.

"If the state government is willing to take CSS officers on deputation basis, it may identify the vacancies and the tenure of posting and inform the department," the DoPT said.
It will circulate the vacancies among CSS officers and nominate a panel of selected officers for deputation to state government, who can then select them, it said.
The CSS officers at middle level perform the function of coordinating opinions and ideas to present a balanced picture. There are about 2,200 'Group A' officers working at the level of Joint Secretary, Director, Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary.
It is for the first time that CSS officers are being offered on deputation to the state governments. Usually, the officers of three all India services--Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Forest Service (IFoS)-- and other Group A services like Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Revenue Service (IRS) among others go on deputation.

The CSS is one of the earliest organised services in the country and is an important constituent of the central government machinery. Officers of the service provide a strong and permanent set up of middle level functionaries top the Government of India. They have been contributing ably in policy formulation, its execution and review, the DoPT said.