New Delhi: With just over a year to go for elections to the Haryana Assembly, the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government in the state has started the exercise of winning the hearts of senior IAS and IPS officers by awarding them promotions even before they have completed the requisite number of years in service to be eligible for them.
Since senior IAS and IPS officers play a crucial role at the time of elections – the powers to crack down misuse of money, liquor and muscle power rests with them and they can also effect preventive detentions to ensure orderly conduct of elections in their jurisdiction – the decision of the BJP government is being viewed with suspicion.
IAS officer promoted despite not putting in requisite number of years
The issue has been raised by an advocate-journalist from the state, Hemant Kumar, who said that in the latest instance of largesse being doled out, the government on August 29 promoted the lone Indian Administrative Service officer in the Personnel Department to the higher administrative grade while six officers of the Indian Police Service were promoted to the rank of Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) despite them not having put in the requisite number of years in service.
With respect to the promotion of the IAS officer Anurag Agrawal, who belongs to the 1994 batch, he said the Department of Personnel and Training of the Government of India, which is the cadre controlling authority for all the IAS officers in the country, had specified in the promotion guidelines issued by it in March 2000 that an IAS officer would be promoted to the higher administrative grade or to the post of principal secretary rank only after putting in 25 years of service.
He said Agrawal was a 1994 batch officer and so he would complete 25 years of service on December 31, 2018. As such he was eligible for a promotion only on January 1, 2019 or thereafter. But through its order, the Khattar government has advanced his promotion by a good four months.
Home ministry guidelines flouted while promoting six IPS officers
In the case of the six IPS officers too, the lawyer pointed out that they too belong to the 1994 batch. These officers – Navdeep Singh Virk, Srikant Jadhav, Kala Ramachandran, Anil Kumar Rao, Kuldip Singh Sihag and Paramjit Singh Ahlawat – have all been promoted to the rank of ADGP, again, ahead of their time.
Hemant said the Union home ministry had in January 1999 issued the guidelines for promotions at this level. Originally, he said, it had been laid down that to be promoted to the rank of ADGP, an officer should have completed 26 years of service. However, in July 2010, this condition was slightly relaxed and the duration of service was reduced to 25 years.
Again, he said, these six IPS officers would only have completed 25 years of service on December 31, 2018 and therefore were eligible for promotion from the following day but the state government decided to promote them four months in advance and that too with immediate effect.
Similar indiscretions in the past too
Noting that in the past too, the Khattar government had violated the norms while promoting both IAS and IPS officers, the lawyer said that last December, four IAS officers of the 1993 batch – V. Umashankar, Sukriti Likhi, Neerja Shekhar and Deepti Umashankar – were promoted in a similar manner. And prior to that, the lone IAS officer of the 1992 batch, Arun Kumar Gupta, who is at present on deputation as home secretary in the Chandigarh Administration had been promoted the same way in December 2016. But in the case of Anurag Agrawal now, he said the promotion came not just one or two months earlier, but a good four months ahead of the cut-off date as per the guidelines.
Such ahead-of-time promotions, he said, have set a wrong precedent as in future the 1995 batch officers may also look forward to being promoted ahead of time. Hemant said such promotions would put additional burden on the exchequer. He said the issue may also be flagged by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in his annual report.
PMO silent on earlier violations
In the past, Hemant said, when in 2012, over a score IAS officers were promoted as additional chief secretary, he had raised the issue and the DoPT had replied to his query saying the state government had not taken its permission in the matter. He had thereafter filed an application with the Prime Minister’s Officer, which is still pending with the DoPT officials.