THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The argument of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan that the posting of Sriram Venkitaraman as the collector and district magistrate of Alappuzha was part of the normal procedure of assigning officials to ‘particular roles at particular stages of service’ doesn’t hold ground as there are no rules that mandate collector-service at a particular level to an IAS officer.
There is no mention of mandatory posting as collector in any of the rules framed by the Department of Personnel or Training regarding the service requirement of IAS officers.The hasty decision to bring Sriram to a key position, which has already triggered widespread protest, appears to be an act of benevolence.
Interestingly, there was no demand from the IAS Officers’ Association in this regard. The scope of the officer to approach Central Administrative Tribunal against denial of collector posting was also limited as collector posting for all during the joint secretary level is only precedence, not a rule.
“The popular belief that each IAS officer needs to serve a fixed tenure as collector is wrong. There is no such proposal in any rule book. In fact, almost everyone gets two years’ of field experience as assistant collector / sub collector in the entry cadre post. That will count as field experience for any further posting including Central deputation where such a criterion is necessitated,” said a senior IAS officer on condition of anonymity.
The collector posting has been handed over to Sriram by the government just to fulfill his career ambition even as the trial in the case related to rash and negligent driving under the influence of alcohol and subsequent culpable homicide in which he is the prime accused remains pending in the Sessions Court, Thiruvananthapuram. K M Basheer, a young journalist, lost his life on August 3, 2019, when his two-wheeler was knocked down by a speeding car driven by Sriram.
A 2013-batch officer, Sriram is in his ninth year of service and as per recent practice officers are assigned collector’s role from the seventh year onwards. “That doesn’t mean that there is an upper service limit for that role. There are examples like A Jayathilak and Raju Narayanaswamy who had worked as collectors after getting promoted to senior grades. The government only needs to notify the collector’s post as equivalent of a secretary or special secretary to accommodate a senior official,” the officer said.
A Jayathilak, additional chief secretary (revenue), worked as the district collector Kozhikode In 2006, after completing 15 years in service and at that time he was in the secretary rank. When Raju Narayanaswamy concluded his second tenure as collector in 2008, he had completed 17 years in service and was a secretary. KSEB former chairman and agriculture secretary B Ashok had only served for three and a half months as collector. Devendra Kumar Dodhawat, principal secretary to the governor, had only five months’ service as collector.