Bihar Chief Secretary Navin Kumar is all set to be one of the few lucky IAS officers who will never know the pangs of retirement as he was appointed as the Director General of the newly-created Centre for Good Governance Society (CGGS), before his scheduled retirement on Aug 31.
A post-retirement assignment as the head of a panel, board, or commission is common practice. But, interestingly, bureaucrats and police officials getting new assignments in positions where there is little scope for them is a new trend. For example, some of the former senior police officers were made members of the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) though their own records on human rights, while in service, was not exactly spotless.
Retired and soon-to-be-retired bureaucrats have never had it so good in Bihar. Neelmani walked into the SHRC a few months after his retirement from the post of DGP. He retired as DGP on Aug 31, 2011, and took over as member of Bihar SHRC on Dec 1, 2011. Incidentally, when the worst violation of human rights took place in Bhajanpur village under Forbesganj sub-division of Araria district on June 3, 2011, he was the DGP of the state. An infant and a pregnant woman were shot dead and a youth was stomped to death by a cop whose act was caught on camera.
Former development commissioners K C Saha (1975 batch) was the Bihar development commissioner and was scheduled to retire in March 2013 but he chose voluntary retirement because of ‘personal’ reasons before present Chief Secretary Navin Kumar took charge. Saha, reportedly upset at losing out to Navin for the post of chief secretary, is now the chairperson of the BPSC.
“These appointments are just only to oblige bureaucrats who were close to the political power. This would certainly have a demoralising effect on the honest and upright officers,” said a former senior civil servant. “This trend would make senior officers more pliable and a culture of sycophancy would get a fillip,” he added.
Political executives feel more comfortable with former civil servants because of their long working relations with them and typical mindset to be accommodative with their masters. Perhaps, it appears that the whole process is not only to rehabilitate blue-eyed officers but at times to get control over many quasi-government institutions indirectly.
