- Lower age profile, lateral entry
- Armed forces personnel can apply for top IPS posts
- Higher accountability
- No assured promotions
- New civil authority to control and decide on selections
- Change in exam system
- No deputation for IAS for profit-making bodies.
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New Delhi, December 12
In what will be one of the biggest changes in the bureaucratically run Indian governance system, the Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) today suggested much-desired changes that aim to free the system from political meddling and also from the grip of bureaucrats hiding behind self-serving safety nets.
The ARC wants a change in the profile and method of recruiting civil servants to provide for a lateral entry on earmarked posts, identify specialists and have accountability. It also rules out assured promotions, besides having a civil services authority to administer the services.
The last one is aimed at de-politicising the babu, who gets plum postings on sheer closeness to a politician and on the basis of annual confidential reports. This will be backed by a Civil Service Bill to lay down rules. The commission also wants the code of ethics to be redrawn besides simplification of the procedure for punishing an erring bureaucrat or an official.
These are among the dozen new path-breaking suggestions - probably the biggest since Lord Thomas Macaulay laid down the basic policy governing recruitment to civil services in India in 1854 - that the ARC, headed by Congressman M. Veerappa Moily, made here today. Moily flanked by members of the commission made the stance of the government amply clear “ now the steel frame is the people of India and civil servants cannot take the people for granted”. The last important report the commission gave was on having a stricter law on terror.
Among the first change is the recruitment. The ARC wants younger men and women between age 21 and 25 for general category, 21 to 28 years for OBC’s and 21 to 29 years for SC/ST. On conducting the preliminary and the main examination, the ARC says subjects should be on the Constitution, legal system, economy, polity, history and culture but it should have no optional subjects. That means specialists like doctors, engineers and others stand ruled out. “We will not
judge people on the basis of their ability to cram and take an exam, it will be genuine merit,” Moily said.
And to weed out automatic entry from state civil services into the IAS or the IPS, it says “let them take an exam”. All those who have completed 8 to 10 years of service in grade ‘A’ posts be made eligible. A maximum of two attempts should be allowed and the upper age limit be fixed at 40 years for entry.
On selecting people for specific specialised posts, the ARC wants that all officers of the All India Service and the Central Civil Services, who have completed 13 years of service, be eligible to apply for specific posts that require knowledge of a particular domain. For example, this could be in finance, urban development, infrastructure, rural development, agriculture, revenue generation, taxation, etc.
The Civil Services Authority will then have a panel to interview the applicants on the basis of their work. Once an officer is selected for a domain then he or she will remain posted in that field only. Similarly for all senior level posts in civil and police, domain knowledge will be respected.
For example, the ARC realises the wide pool of talent in the armed forces who can be used for intelligence gathering, counter insurgency operations, etc. The ARC also says the first review will be at 14 years and the second at 20 years of service. There will be no such thing as assured career promotions.
The Civil Services Authority will be headed by a five-member body and appointed by the President, which will virtually administer the services for all particle purposes.
An exhaustive code of ethics, which will ensure impartiality and accountability, has been suggested. To stop abuse of power, the ARC suggests that rules be clearly defined for recruiting at each level so that there is no scope for misuse.
