New Delhi: Last week, in a meeting with the secretaries of the Central government, PM Modi made it crystal clear that making an IAS officer head of any ministry just on the basis of his seniority won’t give results.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who trusts more on bureaucrats than on political leaders is looking for meritorious IAS officers these days.
When he appointed a close aide of the previous PM Manmohan Singh as Defence Secretary, many were left surprised. The aim was to appoint and encourage such officers who can deliver, irrespective of their previous associations and allegiance.
He said, that by the time the government plans to implement any big scheme, the concerned officer retires. By the time his successor takes the charge the scheme would already have travelled miles.
PM Modi in a meeting expressed his opinion that important secretaries in the ministry should at least get three years tenure to get the government’s schemes implemented on the ground level.
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PM Modi has changed the appointment norms concerned with the selection of the IAS officer in ministry as secretaries. The new system is known as 360 degree.
He is giving feedback more importance while choosing a secretary. The feedback is sought regarding his past performance, efficiency and working style.
It is being said that due to the new norms of ‘360 degree’ there are many senior officers who won’t be able to become a Secretary in various central government ministries.
It means that whether it is defence or home ministries, one cannot become a secretary in the ministries without qualifying the norms under “360 degree”.
For example, 1984 batch IAS officer Bhupendra Singh and 1985 batch officer Shalini Prasad couldn’t become secretary as they failed to pass the “360 degree” test.
However, UP cadre IAS officer, Anant Kumar Singh and DS Mishra were able to pass the test. Anant Kumar is the new secretary in the ministry of textile led by Smriti Irani.
Similarly, 56 years old IAS officer DS Mishra will continue as the Secretary in the central government till 2021. Both the officers were promoted on the basis of merit.
A secretary is overall in charge of the concerned ministry under him. He takes care of the entire responsibility of the ministry.
The role of the concerned Secretary in implementing any government scheme is more important than the role of the concerned minister.
However, as per the tradition, an IAS officer becomes a Secretary at the age of 58 or 59 years and then gets retired soon.
Because of this, sometimes the schemes fail to give the desired result. Ultimately, the country and its people face the loss.
This was probably the reason PM Modi in his meeting with the secretaries said that out of 85 secretaries in 2014 when he became the PM, only 4 are left taking care of various ministries.
It means the tenure of around 90 percent secretaries has ended by the time his government has completed three years in power.
The crisis looks more serious when the head of the government is focusing on stability in his ministries’ functioning and eying a second term