Peeved, IIS officers to head for court

At the best of times the Indian Information Service officers can sing paeans of the Government without being asked to. But these are certain...

At the best of times the Indian Information Service officers can sing paeans of the Government without being asked to. But these are certainly not the best of times as some of the officers prepare to lock horns with the Centre.

To begin with, they will be collecting money to slap a case against the Government for coming out with a revised seniority list which they claim is completely skewed.

And in a cadre split among Department Promotees (those who have risen the ranks after having spent considerable time) and Direct Recruits (joined the service after taking the civil services examinations), which has seen some intense fights over who-is-the-boss-and-the-subordinate, everytime the seniority list is revised, there is trouble brewing again over a just released list.

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And this time, the Promotee lobby has gone in a frenzy asking some of its officers to donate money generously to hire the services of a good lawyer to fight their case against the Department of Personnel and Training for issuing the list in the first place.

Most of the promotees claim they are at the bottom of the pile as a result of the list. In fact, an official who retired as Press Secretary to the President of India, finds himself at a position far below those who joined him 20 years later.

‘‘The draft list proposes a very humiliating deal to the senior and retired officers who retired as Additional PIO to Deputy Prime Minister L.k. Advani. These officers are shown below the officers who joined the service 15 years later,’’ officials said. For instance, A.N. Sharma (Retd), additional PIO with the Deputy PM on extension for last two years, has been placed 255 positions below a direct recruit officer of the 1989 batch.

If the new list comes to be implemented, it will grant seniority to junior officers 10 to 15 years of elevation from the date on which they were not only not in service but were possibly studying in primary classes — a facility which is not available even to the IAS officers, some members of the affected party said.

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The dispute between Group A and Group B officers is an old one. In fact, in 1974 the Information and Broadcasting Ministry even stopped direct recruitment — before the process was started all over again in 1984. And that’s when trouble started when the list was sought to be revised.

In the coming days, objections have been invited from officers and only after that will a view be taken. Till then lobbying is on in the corridors of Shastri Bhavan.