NEW DELHI: Bureaucrats may soon be permitted to be active on all social media platforms provided they are not engaged in criticism of government with the central government proposing amendment in the All India Services Conduct) Rules.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has come out with draft rules which are applicable to three all India services--Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS).
The draft says that previous sanction of the government shall not be required when the member of the service, in the bonafide discharge of his duties, published a book or article or contributes to or participate in any media including social media.
“No member of the service shall, in any radio broadcast or communication over any public media or in any document, which may include a caricature, published anonymously, pseudonymously or in any communication to the press or in any public utterance, make any statement of fact or opinion which has the effect of an adverse criticism of any policy of the central or state governments, as per the proposed rules,” said the draft rules.
The member of service shall also not criticise -- on television, social media or any other communication application -- the government, its policy or action, capable of embarrassing the central government relation with the state and foreign countries.
Many babus in the last few months have invited wrath of the central and state governments for posting political comments on social media. In May this year, Madhya Pradesh government shifted Barwani collector Ajay Gangwar for his Facebook comment favouring former PM Jawaharlal Nehru and criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In February this year, Balrampur district collector Alex Paul Menonwas was forced to delete his Facebook share of articles supporting Jawaharlal Nehru Student Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar and Hyderabad scholar Rohith Vemula.
A notice was issued to Bastar collector Amit Kataria, who had posted on Facebook two photographs of him meeting the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May 2015, for not wearing proper clothes while receiving PM. He invited another controversy after he shared a content actually written by Areeb Ahmad, an IIT Kanpur alumnus and PM Rural Development Fellow in Bastar, alleging the attack on Soni Sori to be well planned.
The draft rules allow bureaucrats to accept simple and inexpensive entertainments events arranged by public bodies. They are suppose to declare before the government details of household equipments, automobiles or any other means of conveyance if their value exceed two months basic pay.