UP IAS Association plays safe, skirts transfer, corruption issues
The Uttar Pradesh IAS Association on Saturday steered clear of a discussion on contentious issues like frequent transfers and corruption. Instead, the association focused on the good work of officers.
“No member raised the issue of frequent transfers. Officers have felt the stability of tenure. No officer raised the issue of corruption either,” said Bhuvnesh Kumar after being re-elected as the association secretary at its annual general meeting (AGM) here on Saturday.
The association office bearers, however, admitted that some members stressed on the need of introspection. Yet no further discussion was held even on this issue. Nevertheless, some members obliquely referred to issue of political pressure, saying, “The Indian Administrative Service has its own values and the officers should not succumb to political pressures.”
The officers’ mention of political pressures comes a day after chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s assertion that they have been given complete freedom. The association’s move not to the discuss issue of corruption was also the talking point as a number of senior officers are facing graft charges. A non-bailable warrant has been issued against a senior officer while another is already in jail.
Senior IAS officers spoke about the good work done by the state’s bureaucrats. Besides secretary, coal, Anil Swarup, who has made a mark in bringing transparency in the coal sector, the good work of senior officers JS Deepak and Balvindar Kumar was also cited at the AGM. “We have requested senior officers working at the Centre to provide us with details about the work done by them and the association will upload them on its website as practices,” said Kumar. The association has already uploaded on its website the good work done by 12 officers in the state and more officers’ work would be included therein, he said.
The other of f i cers who addressed the AGM also spoke about the need to restore the glory of the service. Any issue that could lead to a controversy or pit the association against the state government was tactfully avoided despite a growing feeling that the sheen of service was fading away. “The social prestige associated with the service attracted the youngsters during the initial decades. The brightest minds of the country have continued to join what was termed as Steel Frame of India by Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel. But the sheen of the service has started fading away,” said Bhuvnesh Kumar in his message in the association’s newsletter UPDATE that was released on Saturday.
“A paradigm shift has taken place in the Indian social, economic and political arena. The post liberalised era has brought in the concept of facilitator in place of regulator. This has brought new challenges to the fore. The concept of committed bureaucracy toeing the line of political masters is being encouraged subtly. Integrity and professionalism are no longer virtues to be considered,” said Kumar.
As acts of commission and omission of many senior officers posted in districts have remained in focus in the recent past many of them were conspicuous by their absence at the AGM. Kumar said the officers had informed the association about their programmes. Kumar said the officers were informed about the progress made on construction of Sanskriti School that may become operational in next six months. Governor Ram Naik hosted dinner for IAS officers on the occasion. ANOTHER TERM
The UP I AS Association decided to give another term to its office bearers. Senior IAS officers Rakesh Bahadur and Bhuvnesh Kumar will continue as the chairman and secretary respectively.
Ashutosh Niranjan and Surendra Singh have been reelected joint secretaries while Vivek Varshney will continue to work as the treasurer.