State bureaucracy
masse climbed to become chief secretaries.
becomes top heavy
SUBHOMOY BHATTACHARJEE
New Delhi, 18 March
In all the major states, there are now dozens
of chief secretaries and director generals of
police, or DGPs. This has happened because
few senior Indian Administrative Service
(IAS) or other All India Service officers are
willing to come to the Centre to head min-
istries and departments.
Department of Personnel and Training
(DoPT) data shows only a few cadres from
Delhi, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram
and Union Territories (AGMUT), and from
the Northeast, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
form 30 per cent of the officers at senior
administrative grade serving at the Centre.
Chief secretaries and DGPs are the two
senior-most administrative positions in any
state government. But in each of the 28
states, thanks to rapid and time-bound pro-
motions, there are at least a dozen or more
of them sitting in the state secretariats.
As the table shows, in states like Uttar
Pradesh there are now 30 such officers;
Karnataka and West Bengal have 20 each.
It means all the key departments of these
state governments are headed by officers
with the same seniority. This means the
additional chief secretaries have no partic-
ular reason to obey the orders of anyone
who is just notionally deemed superior.
The overcrowding at the senior level has
the cohort of principal secretaries has en
In the case of police, it was evident in the
promotion from the rank of inspector gen-
eral of police to that of DGP.
The trend has also robbed the Centre of
a valuable talent pool. All India Services
have the experience of having worked in
districts. No other equivalent pool of officers
State of affairs has a corresponding experience. This is
State Chief secretary/ Director because officers of central services acquire
Additional General of
Chief Secretary Police/Addl DGP specialisation in different subjects like law,
taxation and audit instead.
Andhra Pradesh 13 17 The bloated numbers at the top have
Assam 4 5 reduced the efficiency of state administra-
Bihar 14 30 tions, both for maintaining law and order
Chhattisgarh 6 13 and to have development works reach the
Tamil Nadu 14 14 people. For administrative purposes, the
West Bengal 20 24 state chief minister designates one of the
Karnataka 20 29 senior most as the chief secretary, but sur-
Kerala 8 9 rounding her sit a set of officers designated
Uttar Pradesh 30 67 additional chief secretaries who are her
Punjab 12 25 batch mates and often who will retire on
Maharashtra 17 21 the same date as her.
Source: State govt websites as on September 30, 2020 The risk was recognised by the
Seventh Pay Commission, the body set
also happened because while promotions up every 10 years by the central and state
at the senior management level are sup- governments to revise pay and allowances
posed to be guided by merit, it is a rare chief for their employees. Commenting about
minister who will set out to displease any the Indian Police Service (IPS), it wrote;
senior officer. So everyone with the relevant “Quite often selection to the post of Head
number of years of service, unless debarred of Police Force (HoPF) is not done on the
by vigilance cases, gets promoted. Also, basis of seniority and HoPFs are some-
while there is a concept of fixed pay for the times transferred out without adhering
top job, it has got diluted since those in the to the two-year tenure rule. Situations
top rank get a scale of pay that puts all of have arisen when an apex scale DGP, who
them within earshot to get pay parity. is HoPF is removed to a post carrying the
Consequently, many secretaries in states inferior Higher Administrative Grade
have got themselves redesigned as principal (HAG) scale and his pay scale is reduced
secretaries. Now in each state government, from apex to HAG.”