BANGALORE: Assuring officers of the Indian Revenue Service that their long standing demand for Cadre Review, V Narayanasamy, Union Minister of State for DoPT, PMO and Parliament Affairs on Friday said, “Within a fortnight cadre review will be finalised with the PMO’s approval. The government will safeguard your interests.” He was addressing the inaugural session of the All India Convention of the Indian Revenue Service Association.
Placing the blame for the inordinate delay in cadre review on the association, Narayanasamy said that the association must take the initiative and put pressure on the government. “For 10 years no initiative was taken. The fault is in your part,” he said. Praising the service, he went on to add that the Food Security Bill would require expenses of `86,000 crore and these were calculated by the government based on generation by the IRS.
The service, so far has seen only four cadre reviews between 1975 to 2000 and DoPT guidelines state that cadre review is a must every five years. He said that in HAG+ category where the second category had to report to the first, the government is working out a system where seniority will be maintained. “Middle-level officers will be given more than what you asked for. I will be meeting Finance Secretary and chairman of CBDT next week to finalise additional posts for middle-level,” he said.
He also announced that the CBDT chairman would now have a fixed tenure instead of a period of three months which will allow the incumbent to focus on major issues like pay scales and cadre reviews. In a lighter vein, the minister also said that IRS would have to look at increasing its expected collection from Rs 5,32,000 crore to Rs 6,00,000 crore after the cadre review decisions were made. A two-day convention, it will aim at discussing the Human Resource Development issues of IRS officers and the prevalent transfer policy for posting officers at various stations.
All party meeting must to discuss Lokpal Bill: Minister
Minister of State for DoPT, PMO and Parliament Affairs V Narayanasamy, on Friday, stated that he had requested the Prime Minister to hold an all party meeting in order to discuss the amendments recommended to the Lokpal Bill. He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function in the city. “They have given 187 amendments and we are considering them. We will be ready with the amendments we feel are acceptable before putting the bill forward during the budget session,” he said. “We don’t have a majority in the Rajya Sabha. Out of 245 seats, we have only 93 and one of our allies has problems with the Lokayukta issue,” said Narayanasamy explaining why an all party meet was suggested. UPA ally Trinamool Congress had raised an opposition to the Lokayukta clause and recent reports stated that the UPA-led government was considering removing ‘chapter three’ containing the Lokayukta clauses entirely in order to push the bill through. He reiterated his party’s stand in ensuring the bill is passed. “We will make all efforts to get the bill passed,” he said adding that the Prime Minister and Finance Minister had been briefed about the amendments.