AAP’s Danics move may invite MHA wrath
The differences created by the AAP government between the IAS and Danics officers over granting time- bound payscales to the latter is likely to invite the wrath of the Union home ministry which is the cadre- controlling authority of both sets of bureaucrats.
The AAP administration’s move to appease the Danics officers by assuring them time- bound payscales is being viewed in political circles as the government’s ploy to appease this particular set of bureaucrats as the IAS lobby had not been cooperating with it during its day- to- day functioning.
The Delhi government is not the cadre- controlling authority of the Danics officers. A senior bureaucrat said that the MHA was the sole cadre- controlling authority of both IAS and Danics officers. “Any enhancement of salary is part of the service condition of the All- India Services rules.”
Despite the Union government being the cadre- controlling authority of both IAS and Danics officers, the city administration had recently approved the grant of time- bound payscales to those Danics officers who had completed 13, 18 and 21 years of service.
Danics is a civil service cadre and its officers are deputed to serve the middle and senior- level administration of Government of NCT of Delhi and Union Territories like Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
These officers, however, serve most part of their service in Delhi and are posted to the Union Territories once or twice before they are inducted into the Indian Administrative Services. While Danics officers are eligible for promotion to IAS cadre after completing eight years of continuous service, it has been taking an average of 27 to 28 years for them to get promoted to the IAS cadre.
In a statement, the Delhi government said that it was of the view that officers dissatisfied with their service conditions could hardly be expected to perform well and, accordingly, it decided to grant time- bound payscales to all Danics officers as stipulated in service rules after completion of 13, 18 and 21 years of service. In many other states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Punjab, etc. the cadre of state civil service have managed to get promoted to IAS within a span of 8 to 10 years.
The Union home ministry too is said to have earlier endorsed the time- bound payscale policy for Danics a few years ago, but was unable to implement the same due to certain reasons. With the MHA being the cadre- controlling authority of the IAS and Danics officers, the city administration’s decision has raised several questions on the service conditions these bureaucrats.