NEW DELHI: To pave the way for the Group B & C officers of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Subordinate Services (GNCTDSS) to get promoted as Group A employees, Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena restructured the cadre, Raj Niwas officials said on Friday.
Officials said that the move will bring a major relief to about 13,000 such employees who have been demanding this for a long time.The GNCTDSS, previously known as DASS, was constituted in 1967 and was not restructured for the last 56 years, while according to the extant rules and provisions, the mandate is to restructure it every five years, an official said.
The proposal for restructuring of the cadre was earlier considered by the Delhi government and a committee under the chairmanship of S N Sahai was formed. However, the restructuring could not materialise.
“Owing to the non-restructuring, there was acute stagnation in the GNCTDSS cadre and directly recruited Grade-II (DASS) or assistant section officers (ASOs) could get only one promotion in their entire career, rising up to the level of Grade-I(DASS) or section officer (SO) (Group-B, gazetted). At the far end of their service, only a minuscule number of them could get promotion to the post of entry grade of the DANICS (Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Island Civil Services),” the official explained.
In August, Delhi Services Minister Atishi had objected to the restructuring of the DASS cadre by the LG as a “complete violation” of a Supreme Court order and the GNCTD (Amendment) Act, 2023. She had requested Saxena to return the proposal regarding restructuring so that it is processed through the Council of Ministers, saying it was the appropriate, constitutional and statutory process.
According to officials, these newly-created posts of the department will be manned by the existing officers till the eligible Grade-I officers of the GNCTDSS are promoted and posted to replace them. The officials of the GNCTDSS, having minimum nine years of regular service as Grade-I officers, shall be considered for promotion against such 217 posts.
The promoted officers appointed against such newly-created 217 posts shall not be posted or deployed against any Indian Administrative Service (IAS) or DANICS posts, or posts of similar pay scales in any other cadre, organisation or department, they said.
The channel of submission of files shall be ensured in such a manner so that no entry-grade DANICS officer would be required to report to such senior scale officers of the GNCTDSS, officials said.