Ease Of Doing Administration

Context: System of cadre posts reserved for some services must be reconsidered.

Concept of cadre posts in Indian administration and its significance

• Reservation of posts: Certain posts, both at the Centre and in states, are reserved for certain services by declaring them as cadre posts.
  • For example, a collector in any district has to be from the IAS. Similarly, a superintendent of police will always be from the IPS.
  • This goes right up to the top of the state administrative structure, where the chief secretary is from the IAS and the director-general of police from the IPS.
• Necessity: It may not be advisable to completely do away with the concept as we need specialised and trained departmental officers to man the bottom and middle of the administrative pyramid.

Implication of reservation of posts:

• Resulted in an exclusionary behaviour by all services: This has set off a competition where every service wants to get as many posts as possible declared as exclusive cadre posts, which can be occupied by its members only.
  • The recent case in the Supreme Court between CAPF officers and IPS officers is but one such example.
  • The Haryana government’s order appointing an IPS officer as principal secretary (transport) — a cadre post of the IAS is being resisted by the Home Department of the state government

Consequences of exclusionary behaviour among various services due to reservation of cadre posts

• Glass ceiling: It acts as a glass ceiling for all the members of a service, whatever the skill set possessed by an individual member and hence, acts as a de-motivator.
• Biased promotions: It creates strange anomalies where batchmates from the same examination are promoted slower or faster just because they belong to different services, not because they are less or more competent.
• Sub-optimal talent utilisation: It prevents the government from optimally utilising the talent it possesses, especially when the government feels that there is a talent gap that it seeks to fill by hiring from the private sector.
  • Officers from a particular service have to be posted to a particular post, giving less than optimal choices.
• Services become top-heavy: In the absence of lateral movement, all members remain within the core functional area and hence need to be promoted periodically, mostly simultaneously.

Way Forward

• Cadre neutral posts: Beyond the bottom and mid-level, make posts cadre-neutral or at the least make multiple services with relevant experience eligible for the post.
• Bring ease of doing business in our administration: We need to bring the concept of “ease of doing business” into our administrative thought and practices. Only then we can optimally harness the talent pool that we abundantly possess, both inside and outside the government.