6 States Including Odisha Oppose Centre Move To Amend Deputation Rules

Bhubaneswar: At least six states including Odisha have opposed the Centre’s proposal for an amendment to the IAS Cadre Rules which would enable it to post IAS officers on Central deputation bypassing reservations of the state governments.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) wrote to the states on January 12 that the Union government proposes to amend Rule 6 (deputation of cadre officers) of the Indian Administrative Service (Cadre) Rules 1954.

One of the four amendments proposed by the DoPT to be amended is that if the state government delays posting a state cadre officer to the Centre and does not give effect to the Centre’s decision within the specified time, “the officer shall stand relieved from cadre from the date as may be specified by the Central government.”

At present, officers have to get a no-objection clearance from the state government for Central deputation.

The other proposal that has drawn strong objection from the states prescribe that the the Centre will decide the actual number of officers to be deputed in consultation with the state and the latter should make the names of such officers eligible.

The Centre’s proposal has been opposed by Odisha, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Telangana. They have informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the proposal, if implemented, will affect the administration of states.

Raising objection to the proposal in a letter to the Centre, the General Administration department of Odisha government stated that the developmental projects in the state  will be affected at implementation level, if civil servants are taken on Central deputation.

Taking to Twitter, BJD MP Amar Patnaik said, “The latest proposal by GoI to amend All India Service Rules, besides upsetting the existing balance in control that Centre & States exercised over these cadres, is also contrary to the current definition of Deputation. It requires willingness of the officer too; can’t be forced.”

It may be noted that in a reply to BJD legislator Soumya Ranjan Patnaik in the Assembly in December last year regarding how many IAS and IPS officers have gone on Central deputation, the state government had replied that there were 248 IAS posts and 195 IPS posts in the state.

Of the IAS posts, 54 officers are entitled to Central deputation while 28 have availed it. Similarly, out of 41 approved IPS posts, 24 officers have been posted on Central deputation.