{"id":559,"date":"2019-06-14T12:13:11","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T12:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/?p=559"},"modified":"2019-06-14T12:13:14","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T12:13:14","slug":"5-reasons-why-ias-officers-are-alarmed-by-modi-govts-lateral-entry-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/5-reasons-why-ias-officers-are-alarmed-by-modi-govts-lateral-entry-push\/","title":{"rendered":"5 reasons why IAS officers are alarmed by Modi govt\u2019s lateral entry push"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Source: theprint.in<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>New Delhi:<\/strong> The Modi government\u2019s plan to reform the civil service by laterally recruiting scores of domain experts has alarmed civil servants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Modi government had in its first term recruited  nine joint secretaries from the private sector on a pilot basis. After  returning to power with a thumping majority last month, it wants to  recruit larger numbers of domain experts at the director and deputy  secretary level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The government has already begun working on the proposal which was \npart of the 100-day plan prepared by the Department of Personnel and \nTraining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While it is not clear when the modalities of the proposal \u2014 such as \nwho will recruit these officers, what exactly will be their terms of \nrecruitment etc. \u2014 will be fleshed out, the plan itself has led to \nserious concerns among serving civil servants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The following are the five key concerns of civil servants, a wide  cross-section of who spoke to ThePrint on the condition of anonymity to  be able to express themselves freely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_81 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-4' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/5-reasons-why-ias-officers-are-alarmed-by-modi-govts-lateral-entry-push\/#What_about_us\" >What about us?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/5-reasons-why-ias-officers-are-alarmed-by-modi-govts-lateral-entry-push\/#Fewer_government_jobs\" >Fewer government jobs<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/5-reasons-why-ias-officers-are-alarmed-by-modi-govts-lateral-entry-push\/#Reservation\" >Reservation<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/5-reasons-why-ias-officers-are-alarmed-by-modi-govts-lateral-entry-push\/#Accountability\" >Accountability<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-4' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/5-reasons-why-ias-officers-are-alarmed-by-modi-govts-lateral-entry-push\/#What_about_specialised_services\" >What about specialised services?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_about_us\"><\/span><strong>What about us?<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The move is bound to have a demoralising effect on serving civil \nservants who join the service at a young age of 24-25 and continue to \nwork in the government for their entire career hoping to climb the \nladder with time, say officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSuddenly, you say that  you guys continue to work at the lower levels, but for the higher ones,  we will hire people from the private sector\u2026 It\u2019s not fair,\u201d said a  director-level officer working in the central government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf you want lateral entry, then allow lateral exits also,\u201d said another senior IAS officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese lateral entrants are going to go back into the private sector \nwith more leverage after working in the government\u2026 But existing \nofficers can\u2019t go anywhere \u2014 you are taking their domain away from them,\n and not allowing them to explore other options,\u201d the officer added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Former Union secretary Anil Swarup said civil servants may not be \nexperts, but have leadership qualities. \u201cYou can outsource expertise but\n not leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Fewer_government_jobs\"><\/span><strong>Fewer government jobs<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>If the government\u2019s proposal of recruiting hundreds of individuals \nvia lateral entry comes through, the Union Public Service Commission \n(UPSC) will have to hire fewer people, an official from the commission \nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLogically speaking, we will have to hire fewer people if the \nproposal comes through\u2026 Otherwise it would only mean that we take more \npeople and their growth gets arrested at higher stages,\u201d the UPSC \nofficial said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This would mean fewer prestigious government jobs since five-year \ncontracts cannot be called full-fledged government jobs, said the IAS \nofficer quoted above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDomain experts don\u2019t really need jobs\u2026 So by giving them contracts  for a few years, you\u2019re not ensuring employment,\u201d the officer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Reservation\"><\/span><strong>Reservation<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>While it is unclear if the government will give reservation to \nofficers recruited through lateral entry, even if it does, it would be \nextremely difficult to find successful individuals from the reserved \ncommunities in the private sector at senior posts, said a Dalit IAS \nofficer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe private sector has never had reservation and therefore, people \nfrom underprivileged communities hardly ever make it big there\u2026 So how \nis the government going to find domain experts from underprivileged \ngroups?\u201d the senior officer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of the nine laterally recruited domain experts by UPSC this year, \nnone belonged to the SC\/ST communities, the officer pointed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moreover, the Modi government\u2019s own quota for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) will be rendered \u201cun-implementable\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhich domain expert will you find in the private sector who belongs to the EWS category?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Accountability\"><\/span><strong>Accountability<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If the government goes through with its plans, it must chalk out a \nfoolproof method to ensure accountability of these domain experts even \nafter the end of their contracts, said another IAS official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe remain accountable to the government throughout our careers because the government is our <em>karta-dharta<\/em> (whole and soul),\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHow will you ensure the same degree of accountability from someone \nwho is simply going to walk back into a well-paying private job after \nfive years?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is no cooling-off period that has been stipulated for the nine \nlaterally recruited individuals for the post of joint secretaries. Even \nthe 54 domain experts to be hired by Niti Aayog are not going to have a \ncooling-off period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Swarup too agreed that accountability will be a major issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs civil servants, we take an oath to the constitution\u2026if something \ngoes wrong, we\u2019re held liable. How do you fix responsibility here?\u201d he \nasked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_about_specialised_services\"><\/span><strong>What about specialised services?<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The criticism of being \u201cgeneralists\u201d may hold true for the Indian  Administrative Service (IAS), but officers from other services like the  forest, revenue, telecom, etc. believe that they are domain experts, who  have been neglected at the cost of the IAS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf the government is taking such a radical step, it might as well \nstop recruiting officers from specialised services altogether,\u201d said an \nIFS officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFor so long, we are  neglected because our expertise is apparently too limited, and then  suddenly we are told we need domain expertise, but we\u2019ll bring it from  outside\u2026 It doesn\u2019t quite add up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: theprint.in New Delhi: The Modi government\u2019s plan to reform the civil service by laterally recruiting scores of domain experts&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[410],"tags":[696,699,558,698,697,695,694,482],"class_list":["post-559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-union-public-service-commission","tag-alarmed","tag-entry","tag-ias","tag-lateral","tag-modi-govts","tag-officers","tag-reasons","tag-upsc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":561,"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions\/561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gurukulgalaxy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}