The Punjab government seems to be very generous when it comes to rehabilitating retired IAS and IPS officers. During the last two years,11 IAS,1 IPS and 1 PCS officer have been re-employed by the government is different commissions after their retirement. Retired bureaucrats have mainly been rehabilitated in the Punjab State Information Commission and Punjab Right to Service Commission. Ramesh Inder Singh,who retired as the chief secretary of Punjab,was appointed as Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) of the Punjab State Information Commission. Recently,retired IAS officers Satinder Pal Singh and Parveen Kumar were appointed information commissioners in the information commission. Besides,former IAS officers B C Thakur and Narinderjit Singh were also made information commissioners. Thus,out of 10 members of the information commission,including the CIC,five are bureaucrats. In the recently constituted Punjab Right to Service Commission,out of five commissioners,including the chief commissioner,three are retired babus. Chief Commissioner (CC) S C Agrawal,who was a chief secretary,took premature retirement to take over as CC the term of office was five years or one could enjoy the position till 65 years of age,whichever is earlier. Retired IPS officer S M Sharma also took premature retirement as the director general (Security) in the Punjab Police. He then became a member and was also made the acting chief commissioner of the commission till Agrawal joined. Besides the two,retired IAS officer Iqbal Singh Sidhu is also a commissioner here. Another IAS officer S S Brar took premature retirement and was appointed the election commissioner of Punjab State Election Commission. Though he was to retire in February,he took VRS in November 2011 to take up the post before the model code of conduct came into force before the Assembly elections. Also,former IAS officer Romila Dubey,whose last posting was financial commissioner revenue,is the chairperson of Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission. Former IAS officer R N Gupta has also been re- employed in Punjab Governance Reforms Commission. A few years ago,the state government had set up the Punjab Infrastructure Regulatory Authority. Former IAS officer Tejinder Kaur is the authoritys chairman. Punjab Civil Service (PCS) officer Narinder Sangha is also the member of Punjab Public Service Commission he took premature retirement to become a member. His last posting was officer on special duty (OSD) to the chief minister. When contacted,Dr Parmod Kumar of Chandigarhs Institute for Development and Communication,said: The officers should be re-employed to use their experience in relevant fields and not merely to avail perks attached to these positions or for rewarding there services. Also,there should be an objective criteria to measure their performance.
