New Delhi, Sep 9 (PTI) The Central Secretariat Service (CSS) officers’ association on Wednesday sought immediate completion of its cadre review, citing a prolonged delay and claiming that it has the potential to adversely affect the efficiency and functioning of the government.
The association’s response came on a recent social media post by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) regarding cadre reviews it completed.
“The DoPT has highlighted its achievement of completing the cadre reviews of 60 central group ‘A’ services and 117 of All India Services. This is certainly a commendable achievement. But there is one straightforward question: what about CSS? The cadre review of the Central Secretariat Service, which, even after being a Group A service, has remained pending for over eight years,” said Dev Gupta, President of CSS Forum.
He said the fourth cadre review committee was constituted in October 2022, and the required inputs from ministries and departments were received by the first half of 2023.
“Yet, the committee’s report remains pending to date. Reforms cannot be selective. The cadre that helps implement reforms across government cannot itself remain unreformed. The CSS Forum’s request for immediate completion of the fourth CSS cadre review and, in future, institutionalisation of a systematic, transparent and time-bound mechanism for cadre reviews, with clearly defined timelines to prevent prolonged delays,” Gupta said.
“This prolonged delay is no longer merely a matter concerning the career progression of CSS officers; it has the potential to adversely affect the efficiency and functioning of the government itself,” according to a statement issued by the CSS Forum.
It said that a timely cadre review would not merely address a long-pending matter, but would also strengthen the capacity, efficiency and effectiveness of the central secretariat and, in turn, reinforce the government’s administrative machinery.
The CSS Forum said that, as per the Information received through the RTI, the manpower requirements projected by only a limited number of ministries/departments were approximately 3,000 posts.
The actual requirement across the government is, therefore, likely to be substantially higher, it said in the statement.
Continuing to function with such reduced manpower strength, despite the requirements having been formally projected years ago, can only place additional pressure on the existing workforce and potentially affect the efficiency, capacity and effectiveness of ministries and departments, it added. PTI AKV KSI KSI
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