‘Local’ row makes IAS officers hard to divide

Hyderabad: The “local-non local” controversy has become a thorn in the side of the division process of IAS officers between Telangana and AP. Officers in both regions want only local candidates to be given “options” to choose the state of their choice.

Though there is no provision for IAS officers to give options as per the AP Reorganisation Bill-2014, they are bringing pressure on both the Centre and the state government to extend the facility along the lines of other government employees.

The IAS Officers’ Association on Thursday convened its emergency meeting to discuss the issue. The Prime Minister has to take a final call on giving options to IAS officers in consultation with the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).

However, it remains to be seen whether Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh takes a final decision on this issue before demitting office on May 17 or leaves the decision to the new PM. The PM has to refer his decision to President Pranab Mukherjee, who has to approve giving options to IAS officers.

IAS officers belonging to the state have been demanding that only those officers who were born in the state, got selected for IAS and are serving the state, should be given “options” to choose the state of their choice after bifurcation. They refer to such officers as “insiders”.

Their contention is that officers belonging to other states and serving here should not be given options. They demand that such officers should be allotted postings based on the “roster system” by following “seniority of service”.

In this system, the most senior officer will be allotted a particular state by way of “toss”. If that officer gets Telangana, the next immediate senior officer will be allotted to AP and so on.

This way, officers point out that there would not be any problem for anyone and officers from all the regions would get justice.

Till now, the state government has been accepting “sealed cover options” from IAS officers. But the officers are unhappy with this procedure since they are being asked to give a written undertaking stating that they are ready to work anywhere after bifurcation. Officers feel that there is no point in giving such options, if they are not considered for postings in the end.