The corridors of the union ministries are abuzz these days with the murmurs of protest against the department of personnel and training’s (DoPT) indifference towards the growing stagnation in the ranks of middle-level bureaucracy.

The favourite pastime of these officers — assistants, section officers, undersecretaries, all of whom come from the central secretariat service (CSS) — is discussing if they will ever make it to the position of director or even deputy secretary (the top two positions normally accessible to them).
Hargovind Sahi (name changed) has been an undersecretary in the central government for ages. And with few years of service left before he retires, his hopes of becoming a deputy secretary are most likely to run aground.

Sahi is one of 1,000 of the total 1,462 undersecretaries who have been waiting for promotion to the next level as deputy secretary for the past eight years. “While ideally it should take 21 years of service to reach to the position of deputy secretary, it takes 25 to 28 years in reality,” said Sahi.

The problem is, said another CSS officer, despite a disproportionally small number of positions at the next two levels (330 for deputy secretary and 110 for director), these are mostly occupied by the IAS or group A service officers.

“Tell me why should IAS or group A service officers be sent on deputations to these positions that should ideally be earmarked for our service. We work hard at all positions starting from assistant to section officer to undersecretary with a fervent hope to reach to the top position as director. But then we are told there are no vacancies at the top,” he said.  

The CSS has 6,387 assistants, 3,018 section officers, 1,462 undersecretaries, 330 deputy secretaries and 110 directors.

CSS is a strong permanent bureaucratic set-up at the middle levels of the government that provides necessary continuity to its administration and policies. It helps in policy formulation, monitoring and review of the implementation of policies/schemes and maintenance of records.

The skills of its officers in noting, drafting and interpretation of rules and regulations enable them to act as a vital link between parliament and the central secretariat, especially when it comes to handling of parliament questions, government bills, etc.

Despite their crucial role in the bureaucratic set-up, they feel that they have not been given their due.

The latest DoPT circular announcing the formation of a committee for cadre restructuring of the CSS has not mollified them one bit. “Two of the earlier restructuring exercises have not done anything to ameliorate our condition,” said DN Sahu, president, CSS Forum, an association of the CSS officers.

According to the DoPT circular issued on April 25, the terms of reference (ToR) of the committee include “reviewing the structure of CSS cadre, along with the feeder cadre, so as to harmonise the functional needs with the legitimate career expectations of its members”. The committee headed by the additional secretary, DoPT, will also “assess the magnitude of stagnation in various grades of CSS and suggest remedial measures as to reduce promotional blocks and at the same time to prevent gaps from building up”.

“The problem with the ToR is that it does not include a time-frame for the report to be submitted, let alone the time-frame for its implementation. The last restructuring committee was constituted in 2008 and the report was submitted in 2010,” Sahu said.

“Another problem is it does not address the crux of the problem that is the stagnation at the undersecretary level. The 1,000-odd officers at this level should have become deputy secretaries and directors five to eight years back. The ToR should have especially mentioned this rank and described its intention to look at it,” said another CSS officer who did not want to be named. 

The CSS Forum has decided to approach the senior officers of the DoPT and submit their demands for changing the terms of reference for the committee. “We want the DoPT to promote the eligible officers immediately and then undertake the exercise of restructuring,” said DN Sahu, president, CSS Forum. 
“We want to use this opportunity (the DoPT’s constitution of a committee) to improve our lot and we are hopeful the DoPT will take our demands into consideration,” he added.

When contacted, a senior officer in the DoPT said the department was aware of the discontent in the ranks of the CSS and the formation of the committee was aimed at resolving all issues.

“And as far as the demand of an immediate promotion of the eligible CSS officers is concerned, we will wait for the committee’s recommendation on it,” he said.