Gone are the days when IAS officers of Uttar Pradesh cadre used to rule the roost at the Centre. There was a time when their dominance at the Centre was so stout that many Cabinet Secretaries came from this state cadre. But that scenario is now changed. Despite having the largest IAS cadre with authorised strength of around 620 officers, the UP cadre IAS officers’ clout at the Centre has been on continuous decline.

The situation has come to such a sorry pass that no officer of 1992, 1993 and 1994 is currently working with the central government. Amit Kumar Ghosh was the lone officer belonging to the 1994 cadre, who was working as Additional Secretary in Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, but he too was repatriated to his home cadre, UP, a few days back.

Even those, who have earlier served at the Centre, were either not empanelled or not relieved by the state for deputation.

UP’s representation in the state cadre IAS officers on deputation to the Centre is so low that it has become a major cause of concern in the corridors of power. That this feeling of concern is not unfounded is proved by the fact that there are only four state cadre IAS officers currently working at secretary level with the Union government and even this number may go down further if the prevailing situation continues.

Among the four state cadre IAS officers, currently posted as secretaries at the Centre are Devesh Chaturvedi of 1989 batch posted as Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Archana Agarwal of 1990 batch as Member Secretary, NCR Planning Board, Kamran Rizvi of 1991 batch posted as Secretary in the Ministry of Heavy Industry and Nivedita Shukla Verma of 1991 batch posted as Secretary, Chemicals and Fertilisers.

Even an award of excellence given by the Union government fails to qualify the officers for empanelment resulting in the number coming down considerably.

Many bureaucrats feel that a system of 360-degree appraisal, introduced in 2015 by the Modi government, has proved as a major stumbling block in the process of empanelment of officers for senior level positions in the Union government.

The 360-degree appraisal system is perceived to be lacking transparency and is susceptible to discrimination as it involves multi-source feedback from various stakeholders, including seniors, peers and even juniors. The empanelment process also takes into account the overall service record, vigilance status and suitability of the officers concerned.

A top former bureaucrat from UP goes to the extent of saying that there may be a point when no UP-cadre officers get empanelled if this situation persists.

It is not that only the appraisal system is to blame, the state government has been equally responsible for this situation. There are instances of the state government denying NOC to some of the officers willing to go to the Centre. Besides, there are officers who were not relieved by the state government on time.

Against this background, a senior IAS officer adduces a curious rationale when he says, “We don’t want good officers to leave Uttar Pradesh.”

The delay in the promotion has been another factor like many IAS officers in the Principal Secretary rank have not been promoted to Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) level to enable them to get empanelled at senior positions at the Centre.

Thus, the root of this rot runs deeper and cries for attention.

(BY-Dinesh Kumar)