Of the several resignations that made headlines in the past week, two cases stood out. Chief Justice of Madras High Court Vijaya Tahilramani resigned after she was transferred to the Meghalaya High Court. In Delhi, a 2011-batch IAS officer, Kashish Mittal resigned because he was transferred from the corridors of powers at the Niti Aayog to the Far East – Arunachal Pradesh.
They are not the first ones to abruptly quit after being assigned to the northeast. In 2014, then-governor of Maharashtra, K. Sankaranarayanan, resigned following his transfer to Mizoram. He reportedly told The Times of India then, “… I will not stick to the position of governor bearing the disgrace (of being transferred to Mizoram).”
For decades now, northeast has been the unofficial gulag of the officers of civil services, public sector undertakings as well as those holding constitutional posts. Unfortunately, both officials and the government exhibit this attitude. Many officers perceive any transfer to a northeastern state as a ‘punishment posting’. And when the government wants to send a hard message to an officer, transfer to the northeast is one of the preferred forms of enforcing discipline.
Also read: Now, IAS officer posted in NITI Aayog quits over transfer to northeast
Historical bias
There is a historical precedent to this practice. During the years, when the sun never set on the British empire, many officers were disciplined through punishment postings to colonies like India, Nigeria, East Africa, British Malaya and Aden. Similarly, France would transfer recalcitrant officials to their North African colonies like Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
In present-day India, the problem starts with the rule books, which seem inspired by those from the colonial times. Northeast is singled out as a special case in the policies. As per the leave policy of the All India Services (IAS, IPS and IFS), any member posted in the northeast or sent on inter-cadre deputation gets 40 days of leaves in a year instead of the usual 30 days. There are other perks like a special duty allowance and additional HRA for all central government employees posted in the northeast.
This too has a historical antecedent. During their heydays, France and Great Britain used to give hardship allowances to their employees posted in the colonies. The French civil servants in the colonies were paid 40 per cent more than their counterparts in France.
Not just All India Services, even the public sector undertakings have similar rules. The Power Grid Corporation of India even has a separate section as part of its HR manual with a very British era sounding title, ‘Hardship Posting Station’. It gives hardship allowance for regions based on – “remoteness, geo-physical conditions, lack of facilities like education, medical and transport and disturbed conditions”. All northeastern states fall in category 1 section. Benefits include special allowance, retention of company leased accommodation in any city of choice and even an extra point during promotion. A substantial section is devoted to benefits that will accrue in case of injury, disablement or death due to subversive or terrorist activity.
Also read: IAS officers from Assam-Meghalaya cadre dominate Modi govt, not UP, Bihar or Gujarat
Not the same northeast anymore
Were all these rules relevant in the 1970s to early 1990s, when insurgency was at its peak in many northeast states? Probably yes. But the northeast of 2019 is very different from that of the last century. There is peace and stability in most parts of the region. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, there has been a steady decline in insurgency-related incidents year on year – 63 per cent from 2014 to 2018 and 36 per cent since 2017.
There has also been a big improvement in infrastructure – physical, social and cultural – across all the eight states. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) brings out an annual liveability index that ranks the best global cities to live in. While the northeast does not figure in the list, the criteria that it uses to rate cities is an eye opener. There are around 30 markers broadly divided into stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. In many of these benchmarks, northeast would not just rate favourably with the rest of India but will be comfortably ahead.
For example, absence of social and religious restrictions and level of pollution are important criteria in the EIU index. Liberal and unpolluted northeast would easily outrank many other regions. Similar is the case with other factors like facilities for sporting, cultural events, food and drink, and the availability of consumer goods and services. Also, northeast will compare favourably on benchmarks like quality of private education and private healthcare.
Also read: Folk, hip-hop & country — regional music videos from Northeast are all the rage on YouTube
Need new approach
In the 21st century, is it justified to have what amounts to an institutionalised payoff to get officers to serve in the northeast? Some of the policies may have been put forth with good intention, but what they unwittingly end up doing is reinforce an unconscious bias and stereotypes in the minds of the people.
More importantly, governance suffers in the region. The phenomenon of suitcase bureaucrats in the northeast has been well documented. Many of these reluctant babus are known to bide their time plotting their transfer out of the region or taking the plane to Delhi at the first opportunity. Northeast has also historically suffered a shortage of civil servants. In an unprecedented move, the central government in 2016 decided to relax existing guidelines and depute from other cadres officers “who are willing to work in the north-east”.
Obviously, this carrot and stick policy of the Indian government is not working out. It is time to think of a fundamentally new approach to governance in the northeast and have a framework that will work out a win-win approach that will be beneficial for both the region as well as the officers.
The author is senior communicator who has held leadership positions in several Indian and multinational companies. He is from the northeast and is currently based in Bangalore. Views are personal.
Sir i am an aspiring UPSC candidate , i am from gujarat , there may be officers who want to leave northeasr , but sir i aspire for northeast the day i become an ias officer , i would request the administration to post me in northeast
Perhaps the author should visit Power Grid’s North-East substations then his opinion regarding hardship allowance might change.
The author should know that these officers are assigned to a cadre when they join their services and they can b transferred to their cadre states anytime,it’s not that they don’t want to serve here it’s something else u fool
All the super Babus of the districts have always lived like ordinary people of the state, they always want to live in the most developed cities because even there they live a privileged life with arrogance, unlike the common man.
May I just invite the author to Nagaland once and stay with me at my place of posting.
I am sure his view of north east would undergo a change.
Sadly the views seem to be what he has seen out of his office window.
I am extremely happy in my cadre and have done as good as one can but by sadly, any officer from outside the NE region would heartily trade his cadre for any other cadre, any day.
How many would be willing to do the reverse?
Knowing the local language is important for an IAS / IPS officer. Discounting that factor, perhaps each mandarin should be required to serve for three to five years in the region. That number could be firmed up by calculating the total number of officers in the country and the those required in the north east. If income tax or customs officers can serve in any part of the country, so should those who supposedly belong to an An All India Service.