How will the Bureaucracy Perform Now ?

The Seventh Pay Commission has finally come up with recommendations -

The panel, a three-member commission -

a. Justice A K Mathur 

b. Economist Rathin Roy and

c. Vivek Rae, the only IAS member 

by a majority has recommended that all-India services (IAS, IPS and IFoS) and other Group A officers who have completed 17 years of service should be eligible for empanelment under the central staffing scheme and the "two-year edge" presently enjoyed by the IAS should be withdrawn. 
The Seventh pay Commission report says "Civil servants today need to be focused on outcomes, not processes, and have to be more accountable for delivery. They have to be agents of change and to this end need to be more agile, more technically savvy and to be able to ensure the economic and public service reforms that are essential."

However, Vivek Rae did not agree with this view of the commission and sought a review of the central staffing scheme guidelines.

Lined up for Service

Though the 'rules' stipulate a two-year edge, the actual gap between a joint secretary from IAS and other Group A services is at least 7-10 years. It is not uncommon to find an IAS officer getting appointed to joint secretary and above grade 10 years ahead of officers of non-IAS services. The pay panel has also recommended that the financial edge held by IAS officers be extended to IPS and the third all-India service, the IFoS (forest service). IAS officers presently get paid more than their batch mates from other Group A services.

 

IAS officer Amit Kataria was asked - why he broke the protocol and wore sunglasses while receiving the Prime Minister.

The recommendation, if accepted by the government, would see the end of the superiority of IAS in senior positions such as directors, joint secretaries, additional secretaries and secretaries in the central government. 

Devsenapathi, an IAS officer '07 batch Chhattisgarh cadre, was asked why he had not worn formal attire while welcoming the Prime Minister

In a candid interaction with young IAS officers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has underlined that they don't have more than 10 years to learn, do new things and experiment and that whoever makes maximum use of these 10 years will contribute much more for the remaining 20-25 years of service. 

Earlier, IAS officers had started a major letter campaign ahead of submission of the Seventh Pay Commission report to counter lobbying by other Central services like IPS and IRS to bring pay parity and end the "superiority" that the IAS has traditionally enjoyed over them. 

How will the bureaucracy perform now ?

Following whatsapp messages circulated on their closed group, IAS officers have been writing petitions to their Central and state associations, apart from secretary, department of personnel & training (DoPT), protesting against attempts by all other associations "to bring in pay parity and do way with the edge enjoyed by the IAS which has been successively upheld by every pay commission till date in a reasoned manner". 

The whatsapp message had asked the IAS officers to "burn the midnight oil and pour your heart out as to why you came to the IAS and why you deserve what you deserve". 

Their overwhelming view being - "Young officers with 20-30 years of service have everything to lose if we don't stand up now."