Issues with Cadre based Civil Services

Civil Services in India has been constitutionally designed in way that it maintains all India character and ‘outsiders’ are posted in state cadre. ‘Outsiders’ to state cadre would ensure a higher level of objectivity and neutrality in a system which was likely to face enormous regional and local pressure. But in the 1980s and 90s, partisanship, local considerations and nepotism crept into the system.

♤ Permanency of cadres: It results in inefficiency and ineffectiveness in the working of civil

services. It diminishes the all India character and limits the officers’ concern to local issues.

♤ Provincialization: According to ‘Public Institutions in India – Performance and Design by Mehta and Kapoor’ there is a feeling that IAS officers are ‘all India’ in name only. As the proportions of officers who genuinely alternate between state and central government has declined.

♤ Adoption of best practices: Provincialization of civil services reduces capacity of the civil services to adopt and disseminate good practices of other cadres.

♤ Collusion with local politicians: For the want of preferred and plum postings, the officers collude with local politicians and officers.

♤ Specialized Positions: According to 2nd ARC, cadre based civil services has limited the recruitment of persons with specialized knowledge at important positions through lateral entry.

♤ Large variation: There are large variations in the size of IAS cadres with respect to total state populations. As a result, the IAS cadre in UP is 40% smaller than it should be while in Sikkim it is 15 % more than it should be, based on population alone.

♤ Central Deputation: According to ‘Public Institutions in India – Performance and Design by Mehta and Kapoor’ many small states have much better representation in central ministries and departments than their larger peers.

♤ Reluctance to ‘de-cadre’ positions: Due to changing social and economic conditions some posts diminished in importance. But they were rarely ‘de-cadred’. For ex – In many states, the post of Land Settlement Officer is still encadred, decades after overwhelming majority of land tenure/land revenue settlement work was completed.