TIME TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF CIVIL SERVICE

India wanted its All India Services of the post-independent era to break away

from the British legacy and as a first step altered the names of the services. It is an irony

that the process led to and marked a dilution of quality. The present Indian

Administrative Services is not even a poor shadow of the old Indian Civil Service; nor

does the Indian Foreign Service bears a resemblance to the Indian Political Service; and

the present Indian police service lacks the vigour of the good old Indian Police.

The old All India Services was built on the tripod of faultless selection and

recruitment, perfect training and exposures to the highest standards of professionalism

and character to sustain it throughout. But, new India just failed to give these factors the

importance they deserved.

Reasons for this deterioration are many. The first is inherent lack of passion for

quality and excellence. The agency incharge of selections, the Union Public Service

Commission, is manned by people unequal for the task either in their professionalism,

efficiency, passion for brilliance or basic character, How can the process be reversed?

Merciless pruning of the extant services to create a compact and highly

responsible core of administrative potentialities to handle a few sensitive key positions in

the colossus of the administration is needed now. Nothing short or brilliance and highest

potentiality to handle the affairs of the country should find a place in the wing that is

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responsible for constituting the nerve-centre. The administration must be kept beyond

the purview of extraneous constraints such as reservation of any kind and even age

restrictions by way of multiple point entries for different age groups. The guiding

principle here is drawing the best talents from whatever sources without restraints of any

kind for the best results. The services should not be treated as an employment

opportunity to the elite, but as the foundation and pillars of the government.

HUMAN RESOURCE

The basic source of manpower for these services has to be boys and girls below

the age of 16 years who have completed secondary education. The selection must be

made part of the final secondary examination. The UPSC must be made responsible for

grooming those recruited. The commission must handle their further academic studies at

the government’s expense for the next seven years to meet the demand of the services.

Identifying the best talents of the country at higher age groups has to be the goal

of the Establishment Cell created within the UPSC on the lines of the Establishment

Officer of the Home Department of the British Raj. The cell must get busy scouting for

best talents from whatever source for direct absorption to the All India Services at the

appropriate levels after initial training. Outstanding professionals, technocrats and

creative minds of proven calibre can be the candidates.

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 Every recruit has to be put in independent charge of a subordinate job for two

years under the supervision of a competent senior officer. His performance in this

sphere must from a vital ingredient in the annual assessment. The trainee must be

judged at every stage at different levels to decide his or her suitability for various jobs.

Five years of regular service after the field training must pave the way for the first

promotion. This must function as a natural filtering process as those fit should be

promoted in the mainstream while others get elevated to higher ranks in the related

subordinate departments to man posts covered under the Central Services.

Mr.B.K.Nehru, in his memoirs “ Nice Guys Finish Second” refers to an incident

in 1950s wherein the then Finance Minister T.T.Krishnamachari, asked the chairman of

the Central Board of Revenue to show him a particular income-tax file. The latter

refused point blank on the ground that the law did not allow it. While he agreed that

T.T.K. was his superior, he contended that he himself could see the file as the chief of

the Income-Tax Department while TTK could not as he was not directly involved with

the department. India needs such spirit.

While the Ministers must lay down objectives and policies, their secretaries must

formulate programmes including drafting appropriate laws and rules to channel the

government objectives and policies. The onus of implementation of the programmes

must be left to the departments concerned.

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 India, in the pre-independent years needed brilliant people to handle its

administration. British India, with all its brilliant ideas and administrative wisdom,

created the All India Services. It recruited brilliant people for the services, imparted the

best possible training to them, exposed them to the highest standards of the profession

and presented them the best of trust, powers and opportunities to carry out their

responsibilities. The Government took care of all their personal needs, provided them

with many opportunities for growth and bestowed on them a halo of invincibility.

The training programmes for the services should be relevant to the time and

highly advanced in content. Subjects taught have to be updated every year by experts and

made challenging even to the brightest among the members of the services unlike present

training programmes which are intellectually impoverished, irrelevant to the time and do

not help tune attitudes to higher levels. Another need is making the promotional tests

mandatory and of a high standard. Overhauling the present mediocre Union Police

Service Commission to create an efficient and responsible set-up capable of handling the

enormous responsibilities under Article 320 that compels attention to arrest the

degeneration set in, in the set-up that led to blunders in identifying talents and managing

the services.

CREDIBILITY OF THE UPSC

A recent case is from Karnataka where three promising officers from the state

cadre were denied selection by the UPSC to an All India Service for no obvious reason

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for ten years from 1990 while their juniors scored the elevation. The acute frustration

and demoralisation caused led to the break-up of family life of one of the promising trio

and subsequent divorce, repeated violent behaviour by him in public leading to public

humiliation and ultimately involvement in a murder case ending in his arrest and

conviction.

The answer to unprofessional transgressions by the UPSC lies in transforming it

to a highly professional outfit managed by people of unimpeachable character, efficiency

responsibility. The objective can be achieved by suitable amendment to Articles 316 and

317 to ensure that only right and sensible people become members and chairman of the

organisation and remain in the saddle only till they retain their moral and professional

calibre.

This can be made possible by the constitution of a committee comprising the

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Chief Commissioner of Central Vigilance

Commission and Speaker of Parliament as members and the Vice-President of India as

the Chairman to clear the names for appointments as members and chairmen of the UPSC

for a fixed tenure and initiate actions for their removal by an appropriate procedure in fit

cases. Changes to this effect in Articles 316 and 317 plug the loopholes in the existing

provisions that provide too much scope for political interferences in the selection of

members and chairman of the UPSC.

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 All –India Services as the nerve-centre of the administration has to be made

responsible to an apex body called All India Services apex board. The board should

oversee, supervise, study, control and manage every affair pertaining to the Services at

its own collective wisdom and discretion with powers of rewards, punishment and

placements invested with it. Sensitive posts in the governments and public undertakings

have to be identified in advance for the All India Services and once it is done,

placements have to be left to the wisdom and discretion of the apex board. The

governments concerned and public undertakings as employers must keep the apex body

constantly and periodically informed about the performances of each official placed

under it and request changes wherever necessary with reasons therefore. The final

decision on such requests has to be left to the judgement of the apex board based on its

constant research, study, enquiry and assessment.

The best bet for professional resolve and high commitment in such an apex body

is having senior most officers of the All-India Service in fine fettle as members of the

apex board under the seniormost member as the chairman, appointed strictly on seniority.

It is these members with tow-thirds majority who must be empowered to bar a competent

senior officer from becoming a member or remove an existing member of chairman from

the board by recording sufficient reasons for the act.

Under the new scheme one should be committed to service for life unless one

offers to retire on health or personal grounds or forced out by the apex board for valid

reasons. Except in cases of retirement on request before the age of 60 years for

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nonmedical reasons or removal by the apex board as a punishment, every officer should

be entitled to all the benefits as in service for life even after retirement. However, once

confirmed in the service, one should be prohibited from taking up any private or other

government jobs while in service or after retirement or even after resignation from the

service. These safeguards should be relaxed only by the apex board.

The country should take cognisance of all the legitimate needs of these officers

and provide them with the best possible living standards. Instead of salaries, these

exceptionally brilliant officers must be allowed to decide and draw emoluments against

performances every month on their own assessment which include liberal perks such as

free education for children in any kind of educational institution, free educational

supports, free medial aid of whatever kind, free club membership and other

entertainments, free foreigh tours, free housing and transportation of whatever kind,

help to earn permanent assets, free supplies of daily needs and other movable properties.

Each officer must submit to the apex board a periodical report of his performances. The

board must study each report to judge the officer. It may warn or take whatever action

found necessary.

The Government is doing nothing to arrest the decline of the All India Services

on all fronts. India is preoccupied with myriad issues of economic and social

developments and perhaps the rapid deterioration of its All India Services does not seem

important. But, the Government should realise that a strong civil service is mandatory for

the survival of India and act fast.