IAS babus TAKE THE CAKE IN PLUM POSTS

PANAJI
Has the State government given undue preference to IAS officers in key positions, while sidelining their senior Goa Civil Services (GCS) counterparts in the State administration?
Of the 20 IAS officers posted in the State, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has entrusted important positions to them, so much so that some retired IAS officers continue to hold various positions in the administration.
While 7-8 IAS officers have been made heads of important offices, 11 other IAS officers are serving as secretaries in the administration. Three retired IAS officers has been appointed on the posts of various government bodies.
On the other hand, most of the senior GCS officers have been given relatively minor positions in the administration.
"There are many excellent senior civil service officers in the State, but there is unhappiness among them as the government has been favouring IAS officers in important posts," a source told The Goan.
According to sources, the secretary's post in the state administration is generally entrusted to IAS officers, though the law secretary is an exception as the government prefers to appoint an experienced lawyer to this post.
The government has appointed IAS officers to head the important departments of Education, Excise, Tourism and Transport. Incidentally, these posts were earlier filled by local officers, when a gazetted officer was promoted to head these departments.
When it comes to the 36 senior GCS officers presently in service, they have been allotted relatively minor posts, even though the government can appoint them as heads of departments.
Incidentally, three senior Goa Civil Service officers were promoted to the IAS cadre in the last 3-4 years.
According to sources, the government has appointed IAS officers to those positions which could have been served by senior GCS officers. The include Amit Satija (Excise Commissioner), Anjali Sehrawat (South Goa Collector), Nila Mohanan (North Goa Collector), Amey Abhyankar (CEO, Entertainment Society of Goa and Secretary, State Public Service Commission), J Ashok Kumar (Director for Municipal Administration and GSUDA member secretary) and Ravi Jha (Director for Information and Technology and Managing Director of Info-tech Corporation).
Other IAS officers serving mportant positions include P Krishnamurthi (Principal Secretary to CM and Principal Residential Commissioner at New Delhi) and Virendra Kumar (Resident Commissioner, Goa Sadan).
Those retired IAS officers who have been appointed to various bodies are R K Shrivastava (State Election Commissioner), V K Jha (President of 3rd State Finance Commission) and Mathew Samuel (Secretary Lokayukta and Director, Goa Institute of Public Administration and Rural Development).
While Isha Khosla has been recently transferred to Goa but is yet to arrive in the State, Ajit Roy has not been appointed by the government as yet.
Former Goan IAS officer Aravind Bhatikar was clearly unhappy with the undue preference given to the IAS officers.
"While IAS officers are to be given those posts reserved for their cadre, it is not necessary to depute them in those positions which can also be filled by senior Goa civil services officers," said Bhatikar.
"The government should not assume that IAS officers are smarter than the state cadre officers and should not discriminate between the two sets of officers," he added.