Civil services marks may not be sole criterion for cadre allocation

NEW DELHI: Marks scored in the civil service exam and interview may not be the only criteria for allocation of a service or cadre to probationers of three All India Services — Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), and Indian Forest Service (IFS) — if the government clears a key proposal for amendment in rules for selection of civil servants.

The Prime Minister’s Office wants that besides the marks scored in the exam, the probationers for IAS, IPS or IFS should be allocated service or cadre after reviewing their performance in the foundation course. The ministry of personnel has written a letter, seen by HT, to all cadre-controlling ministries seeking their opinion on the issue saying the PMO wants to change the rules from this year itself.

It is basically a two-part proposal. One, the government allocates service as well as cadre to those who clear civil service exam after they complete their three-and-a-half-month foundation course, which now happens on the basis of marks scored in the main exam and interview conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

Second, in case of three All India Services, the government wants to give weightage to the marks obtained in the Foundation Course by a probationer as well before he or she is allocated a service or cadre. “Examine the feasibility of giving due weightage to the performance in the Foundation Courses and making service allocation as well as cadre allocation to All India Service Officers, based on the combined score obtained in the civil services examination as the foundation courses,” says the letter.

There are over two dozen central government services and three All India Services for which recruitment takes place through the civil service exam.

An IAS officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the government will have to bring uniformity in conducting foundation courses if it wants to give weightage to performance in the course. “As of now, performance in the Foundation Course is already one of criteria for determining seniority of IAS officers,” said the officer quoted above.

He added that generally IAS is the first choice of all candidates and if they don’t get it, they give the exam again. “And since they start preparing again, they don’t take foundation course seriously, therefore it seems that the government wants to ensure that foundation course is taken seriously,” he said.