What’s wrong with Raj bureaucracy’s central deputation dreams?

Jaipur: There is good news for Rajasthan’s bureaucracy as the 1993 batch IAS officer, a low profile and a silent performer, Tanmay Kumar has been empanelled for Secretary at the Centre. The Government of India’s Appointment Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) issued approval in this regard on Tuesday. Among the total 21 officers who have been empanelled, Tanmay is the sole officer from Rajasthan, whereas 2 other IAS officers from the 1993 batch - Alok and Sandeep Verma - were also supposed to be empanelled.

Tanmay is serving in the Ministry of Environment and Forest as an Additional Secretary since December 2021, and he has 30 months left until his retirement. As of today, there are only 4 IAS officers of the Rajasthan cadre in the Centre who are serving as Secretary. They are V Srinivas, Rohit Kumar Singh, Sanjay Malhotra and Rajat Kumar Mishra. Among these, Rohit Kumar Singh will retire in March.

It is worrisome that the number of Rajasthan cadre IAS officers at the top level of national bureaucracy is decreasing. After Rohit Kumar Singh’s retirement, there will be just 3 IAS officers left in the Centre from the Rajasthan cadre, whereas at the Additional Secretary level too, there are only 5 IAS officers from the state cadre, namely Tanmay Kumar, Naresh Pal Gangwar, Roli Singh, Rajeev Singh Thakur and Rohit Kumar. When will the remaining 4 get empanelled for Secretary and when will they get a posting as Secretary seems to be a far bet! It is also worrisome that the 1993 batch IAS officer Sandeep Verma is not getting appointed as Additional Secretary even though he has been empanelled and the state government has given No Objection Certificate (NoC) in this regard. Whereas 4 batch junior IAS officers to Verma have become Additional Secretaries. Similarly, the 1996 batch IAS officer Rajesh Kumar Yadav and the 2006 batch IAS officer Gaurav Goyal are not getting empanelled for Additional Secretary and Joint Secretary, respectively. In this matter, both the IAS officers have fallen far behind among their batchmates. Rajesh Yadav has been serving in the Centre as JS since February 2022, and in spite of this, he has not been empanelled for Additional Secretary, which is bizarre.

Moreover, the state government has already issued NoC to the 2002 batch IAS officer Ashutosh AT Pednekar for deputation as Joint Secretary at the Centre, but he has not been called till now. This is also a point of concern that there appear to be only a handful of IAS officers from the 1995 batch onwards who appear capable of going to the Centre on deputation. In fact, if one looks closely, there do not seem to be any officials who could take the first step for central deputation and get posted as Joint Secretary!