ITANAGAR, 11 Aug: Chief Secretary Dharmendra agreed in principle to address the grievances and demands of the Directorate Service Officers Association Arunachal (DSOAA), members of which called on the CS and submitted a memorandum at his office chamber here on Thursday.
Among other things, the DSOAA is demanding that APCS cadre officers not be posted in the directorate as directors, as it has led to “severe stagnation in promotional avenues to departmental line officers to reach higher posts.”
They pointed out that many APPSC examination toppers have opted to join line departmental posts like those of assistant director, finance and accounts officer, child development project officer, DFCSO, etc, “despite qualifying for the entry grade service, hoping to reach the post of director in their service career.”
“However, to their great dismay, many line officers hardly get any promotion in their service career while their batch mate APCS officers rise to the ranks of deputy commissioners and secretaries, which is a major cause of frustration and demoralisation among the directorate officers,” the delegation said.
Informing that posting of APCS officers as directors in the directorates also hinders the framing of recruitment rules of the affected departments, the DSOAA demanded “fair and equal opportunity for induction to IAS cadre from directorate officers for a balanced career progression among all officers of the state.”
The association highlighted that “many circles in the state are facing shortage of APCS officers to run the administration and APCS officers ought to be posted as administrators rather than being posted as directors at the directorates.”
The DSOAA further reasoned that, by the time an APCS officer as director learns the job profile and working system of the line department in a year or two, he or she is posted out on transfer or promotion.
“In this way, posting of an APCS officer not only hinders promotional avenues of departmental officers, it also derails the smooth functioning of the department,” it said.
Stating that “there is a cabinet decision on 13 July, 2017 to en-cadre even director posts of the departments of industries, tourism, rural development, department of Tirap, Changlang and Longding, State Institute of Rural Development, civil aviation, and the department of Karmik and Adhiyatmik,” the DSOAA appealed to the chief secretary to “issue an order to this effect.”
Further, the DSOAA appealed to the CS to “post departmental officers as directors in the departments of skill development and entrepreneurship, land management, information technology, health services, panchayati raj, state transport, civil supplies, disaster management, art and culture, national rural health missions, and housing and urban local bodies.”
It pointed out that “the department of skill development and entrepreneurship has been manned by its departmental officer as director for the past eight years, but the recent posting of an APCS officer as in-charge director has denied promotional avenue of the joint director with 30 years of service experience,” and added that it has demoralised and demotivated other officers of the department concerned.
Saying that “posting of two directors in a department would be contradictory and unhealthy,” the DSOAA sought “repeal of the creation of 10 posts of directors for administration, finance and policy created vide No PERS-105/2017 in 2018.”
Appealing to the CS to “take the confidence of all state government employees before implementing the Bagra Committee Report submitted way back in 2013,” the DSOAA also sought “strengthening all gazette level officers by the expert committee constituted to strengthen the APCS cadre services.”
The DSOAA delegation was led by its president and Social Justice, Empowerment & Tribal Affairs Director Yumlam Kaha.
