* GoI refuses to extend promotion quota on 50:50 basis
Neeraj Rohmetra
JAMMU, June 15: The Appointment Committee (ACC) of the Union Cabinet has approved empanelment of 77 IAS officers, including two of J&K cadre for holding Additional Secretary equivalent posts in the Central Government.
Besides, an IAS and IFS officers from the State have been appointed as Joint Secretaries in two different Departments for a tenure of five years.
Reliable sources told EXCELSIOR that the ACC, which met on June 13 had approved empanelment of two senior IAS officers of J&K cadre – Pradip Kumar Tripathi (1987 batch) and Arun Kumar Mehta (1988 batch). While Tripathi is presently serving as Joint Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions Arun Kumar is presently holding the post of Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
The ACC meeting had been attended by the Cabinet Secretary, Pradeep Kumar Sinha, Secretary DoPT B P Sharma, Additional Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, P K Mishra and Home Secretary, Rajiv Mehrishi.
“With the empanelment of these two officials, the number of bureaucrats of J&K cadre serving different Government Departments in Additional Secretary rank has gone to seven. Other officials serving in the rank of Additional Secretary included former Chief Secretary, B R Sharma, who is presently serving as Additional Secretary in Ministry of Home Affairs; K B Aggarwal, Principal Secretary (Coordination) with Resident Commission J&K Government, New Delhi; B B Vyas, Chief Secretary; Rakesh Kumar Gupta, Principal Resident Commissioner, J&K Government New Delhi and Suresh Kumar, Additional Secretary with Ministry of Coal”, sources elaborated.
“Two J&K cadre IAS officials, who couldn’t be empaneled in the June 13 meeting are Sudhanshu Panday (1987 batch), presently posted as Joint Secretary Department of Commerce and Sundeep Kumar Nayak (1988 batch), Chief Executive Officer, Jehlum and Tawi Flood Recovery Project, who has also been given additional charge of Agriculture Production Department”, sources said.
Sources further added, “another J&K cadre IAS and IFS officials have also been appointed to Joint Secretary level posts. This included Bipul Pathak (1992 batch IAS), who has been posted as Joint Secretary, Ministry of Mines and Jigmet Tapka (1990 IFS), Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change”.
Central Government on Tuesday had cleared the empanelment of 1987 and 1988 batch IAS officers for holding Additional Secretary/ Additional Secretary equivalent posts in the Central Government. Of a total of 77 officers, 39 belonged to the 1987 batch whereas 37 belong to the 1988 batch. From the 1987 batch, 30 IAS officers were empaneled to hold Additional Secretary/ AS equivalent posts whereas 9 were empanelled to hold the AS equivalent posts. From the 1988 batch, 33 IAS officers were empanelled to hold Additional Secretary/AS equivalent post whereas four were empanelled to hold the AS equivalent posts in Government of India.
Sources said, “approximately 140 officials from two batches were eligible for empanelment out of which total 77 officials have found place in the empanelment list prepared by the DoPT” adding, “not many officials are getting empanelled due to the newly introduced 360 degree evaluation methodology by the Government of India”.
Introduced in 2016, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) adopted a well-known management tool – the 360-degree feedback mechanism – for empanelment of officials for Secretary and Additional Secretary level positions in the Government. “Before this system was put in place, around 60 % officials used to be empanelled from each batch but after the introduction of 360 degree appraisal system, only 35 to 40 % officials find place in the list”, sources asserted.
In addition to the usual empanelment procedure that includes Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs), the new mechanism gave emphasis to rate officers on all round aptitude, attitude, integrity and character based on feedback derived from peers and others who have worked with inside and outside the government.
Sources also pointed out, “Centre has refused to accept the demand of the Jammu and Kashmir Government to extend the promotion quota of IAS officers for the border State on 50:50 basis. Though the demand had also been taken up by the Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti at different levels, there seemed to be no response from the Government of India”.
Pertinently, all other States of the country barring Jammu and Kashmir had fixed the quota of 67:33 for IAS officers i.e. they get 67 per cent IAS officers from the Government of India after their selection through the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) while 33 per cent from promotion of State cadre officers.
However, Jammu and Kashmir had its own rule under which they only get 50 per cent of the IAS officers from the country and promote rest of the 50 per cent from within the State cadre.
“The Jammu and Kashmir Government had to extend its order after regular intervals to keep the ratio of 50:50 intact but the latest order had expired on December 2013. Governor NN Vohra had taken up the issue of expiry of order due to which the local cadre officers were suffering with the Centre and subsequently, the Government of India extended for two years the promotion quota of Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officers for Jammu and Kashmir on 50:50 basis till December 2015.
At present, the authorized cadre strength of IAS (J&K Cadre) is 137. Out of these, 75 posts are meant for Direct Recruitment and 62 to be filed up by promotion from State Civil Service Officers (SCS).
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