Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot kept his pre-poll promise made to the RAS lobby. He has now appointed state officers as collectors and heads of department, earlier the preserve of the IAS, making the elite service unhappy.
A decision of the Rajasthan government to appoint senior Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS) officers in posts which were earlier the domain of the elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is likely to create more problems than help in the smooth running of government affairs.
In a major policy shift, the Rajasthan government last week decided to appoint as many as 13 RAS officials as district collectors and heads of some key departments, which so far were the preserve of only IAS officers.
This bold policy decision was taken by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot after consultations with chief secretary Ms Kushal Singh and some senior officials, who are known to be the government’s think tank.
Jubilant over the government’s decision, the RAS Association lost no time to thank Gehlot and Kushal Singh for taking a bold decision. “The Government has broken the misplaced notion that only IAS officers are capable of running the administration at the higher levels of government,” Yagaymitra Singh, president of the association, said.
But senior IAS and Indian Police Service (IPS) officials have expressed reservation over the government move. “In the districts, collectors are the bosses. Since IAS and IPS officials consider themselves as their own class, IPS officers may not give much weight to the new collectors who are not from among them and would look at the RAS collectors as junior to them,” pointed out Amitabh Gupta, a former Director General of Police.
“It will differ from officer to officer,” asserted Shyam Pratap Singh Rathore, another former Director General of Police, adding that “If the RAS collector is good in his approach, he may not have much problem with his IPS bred district police superintendent.”
ML Mehta, a former chief secretary of the state, foresees no problem as the newly-appointed RAS collectors and heads of departments would have had enough administrative and filed experience. All 13 officers have nearly 20 years experience and keeping in view their long standing in the service, they are as good as IAS officers.
Out of the 13 RAS officials, seven have been appointed collectors. No one from the IAS Association was, however, ready to comment on this policy shift, but may of them feel this may deteriorate the workings of the administration. Past experiences show that being locals, unlike IAS officials, they indulge in petty favoritism on caste and region basis.
The blocking of promotion of RAS officers to the IAS cadre owing to court cases over seniority since 1995, was the guiding factor behind the appointment of these officials. Altogether a quota of 56 promotee RAS officers to the IAS, could not be filled since 1996, because of court litigations.
“Many RAS officers, who were eligible to be promoted to IAS cadre, retired during these 15 years,” Yagyamitra Singh pointed out.
Under the provisions, a RAS cadre officer would become eligible to be promoted to the IAS, depending on his or her performance and CR (Confidential Report), after 18 years of service.
Way back in 1996, some officials of the RAS, went to court to challenge the seniority list prepared by the government for their promotion to the IAS. They even went to the Supreme Court to stall the government move to prepare a fresh seniors list. The reservation of post for SC and ST officials was one of the hurdles to prepare a seniority list.
After a long legal battle, early last month, all cases were settled and a date was fixed to hold the screening committee meeting of the UPSC for o promotion of eligible RAS officers to the IAS cadre. During the Assembly election, Gehlot had promised the RAS lobby that if his party comes to power he would try his best to solve the issue on a priority basis. Once in office, he asked the personnel department and government lawyers to settle the court cases speedily.
There was jubilation among RAS officials, when the Rajasthan High Court, after setting aside all petitions, allowed the meeting of the screening committee. They also went to Ashok Gehlot to thank him for persuading the matter with the Centre to clear the backlog of RAS officers awaiting promotion to the IAS. But this was short lived, as the meeting was again stayed by the Rajasthan High Court on the basis of a fresh petition filed a RAS officer.
Keeping these delays in view, the government decided to find out a way to do justice to RAS officials and treat them on par with the IAS, while awaiting their formal promotion to the cadre.
“These senior RAS officials will now get the chance to prove their administrative abilities in the districts as collectors as well as heads of the departments, said chief secretary Kushal Singh.
But the decision has also prompted officials of the Rajasthan Police Service (RPS) to demand similar promotions to them. Unlike the RAS there is no backlog in the promotion of senior RPS officials to the IPS. Recently, the Rajasthan High Court stayed the meeting of the screening committee to promote six RPS officers to the IPS. Members of the RPS feel that if the government fails to fight their cases in court, they would also face a similar problem like that of the RAS.