New Delhi (26.02.2022): It was an unprecedented situation in North Block today. Over a thousand of Central Secretariat Services officers assembled at Dr Jitendra Singh’s office; Union  MoS for Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pensions. Though Dr. Singh could not meet the officials due to prior engagement his Private Secretary assured them that the Minister was concerned and all pending promotions will be effected by March 10.

It was further learned that Dr. Singh was aware of the promotion orders being issued in other cadres, including the SC registry. He spoke to Attorney General KK Venugopal who assured to look into the matter again in view of the latest SC ruling.

It may be underlined that the middle to senior management rank officials belonging to CSS Cadre posted across Union government ministries and departments are awaiting their turn for promotion for over six years. On several occasions, Indianmandarins, in its reports, underlined that the CSS officers, as the backbone of Indian bureaucracy and repository of institutional memory, play a key role in government function as files, documents, and orders are processed by them.

Reportedly, approx. 6,211 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.

Cadre officers had petitioned the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to issue promotion orders as dozens and dozens of Cadre officers retired in the intervening six years, losing out on enhanced salary and pension benefits.

Sources said that the DoPT has put the promotions on hold due to a case in the Supreme Court pertaining to reservations in the promotion to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST).

However, on 28 January 2022, SC in a ruling refused to lay down the “yardstick” for determining the inadequacy of representation for granting reservations in promotions for SC/ST 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 Apex Court’s ruling, a group of CSS officials met Dr Jitendra Singh on 08 February 2022 and they were assured of suitable and viable action on their grievances.

Ironically, the DoPT was unmoved despite clear instructions from Dr Singh. Sources said that “this behavior of the DoPT has antagonized the officials and forced them to show their agony in public,”.

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