NEW DELHI: Officers of 20 civil services, including IPS and IRS, today accused Indian Administrative Service (IAS) of having vested interest in denying them proper promotion and deputation opportunities.
In a memorandum to Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh, a confederation representing the officers, said the situation will be "chaotic" if "fair and equitable treatment" is not given to all services.
Confederation of Civil Services Association (COCSA), led by senior Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Jayant Misra, also expressed "serious concerns" over a Centre-appointed "sham" task force, dominated by IAS officers, to decide on restructuring of their service and sought changes in it.
The Centre had late last month constituted a task force to study cadre structures of various central services to check stagnation level and other issues. However, three all India services -- IAS, Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS)-- have been kept out of its purview.
The task force is headed by a senior IAS officer of Additional Secretary rank.
Citing the Seventh Central Pay Commission's report, the confederation said the mandate to decide about other services has been "arrogated" by IAS, including the right to decide about the cadre structure, stagnation level and Higher Administrative Grade (HAG) posts as the task force is chaired by an IAS officer.
"There is a very strong perception among members of all other services that IAS, which has been enjoying a privileged position, has an inherent and vested interest in keeping the other services down by denying them proper opportunities for promotions, deputations so that the members of these services are unable to compete with that service for higher level posts," COCSA said.
The confederation said the other organised services have been denied their due since long and "injustice is being meted out to them by a particular privileged service", which has been dominating the government since colonial period.
Without mentioning IAS by name, the memorandum said a particular service (IAS) has not allowed the natural growth of other services which is detrimental not only for these services, but also for the entire governance and the country.
The officers have sought change in composition of the task force demanding either a non-IAS officer, a retired Supreme Court judge be made its chairman or a service neutral body be constituted in its place.
The confederation said there was no scope for any stakeholder consultation nor any interaction or participation by the most important stakeholders -- the service associations.
The representatives of various services are also provided less time to give their views, it said.
"In such a situation, giving such a short opportunity is a sham and is obviously a deliberate attempt to deny a proper opportunity of being heard to the affected officers and their representatives, particularly the service associations," the representation said.
The federation comprises 20 services including IPS, IFoS, IRS, Indian Audit and Accounts Service and federation of Railway Officers Association (representing nine railway services).