In an unprecedented situation, hundreds of Central government officials protested at the North Block office of Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh on Friday. The middle to senior management rank officials in various Union government ministries who comprise the Central Secretariat Service (CSS) have not been promoted in the past six years. On Friday around thousand officials assembled at the Union Minister’s office.
The Hindu had reported on January 26 that the government employees had petitioned the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on several occasions to issue promotion orders even as many official have retired in the intervening six years, losing out on enhanced salary and pension benefits.
According to the CSS Forum, an association of government officers, there are 6,210 officers in the rank of section officer, under secretary, deputy secretary, director and joint secretaries in the Central government offices. Of this total strength, as many as 1,839 positions are vacant.
A CSS official said the promotions have been pending due to a case in the Supreme Court pertaining to reservations in promotion to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes.
However, on January 28, the apex court in a ruling refused to lay down the “yardstick” for determining the inadequacy of representation for granting reservations in promotions for Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe candidates in government jobs. The ruling held that ‘cadre’ and not class, group or the entire service was the unit for the purpose of collection of quantifiable data for giving promotion quotas.
Following the SC order, a group of CSS officials met Mr. Singh on February 8 and they were assured of action.
However, according to the CSS official, the DoPT was unmoved despite clear instructions from the Minister. “This behaviour of the DoPT has antagonised the officials and forced them to show their agony in public,” the official said.
He added that owing to the grave dissatisfaction, around 1,500 officials had assembled at North Block. “The Minister could not meet us due to prior engagement. We were assured by his personal secretary that the Minister was concerned and all pending promotions will be effected by March 10,” the official stated.
He added that Mr. Singh had been informed about the promotion orders being issued in other cadres, including Supreme Court registry. The Minister spoke to Attorney General K.K. Venugopal and the latter assured to look into the matter again in view of the latest Supreme Court ruling.
The DoPT did not comment on the protest.
The CSS officers play a key role in government function as files, documents and orders are processed by them.
