U. P. BABUS’ DEMANDS

At its annual gathering, the Uttar Pradesh IAS association has called for transparency in empanelment of IAS officers for postings at the Centre, besides allowing them to work in municipal bodies to give them exposure in the urban development sector.

Earlier, the appraisal of officers was done on the basis of the annual confidential report and what mattered was the opinion of the boss about the officer. The empanelment committees would select civil servants for top jobs based on their annual progress reports or confidentiality reports. These reports were generated by just one person: the immediate boss of the officer under review.

The Modi sarkar introduced the 360- degree feedback tool in 2017 for officers on the threshold of becoming additional secretaries or secretaries. Now, it also matters what your subordinates think of the officer and stakeholders. The aim of the new policy was to bring in behavioural changes and enable better assessment of each officer. The 360- degree review policy caused a stir in the bureaucracy as the view of the boss or the ACR ceased to be the sole criterion for empanelment as additional secretary.

The association also demanded that young IAS officers should also be considered for posting as municipal commissioners as seen in some states, including Delhi.