Hyderabad: Local officers yield' to political whims

Hyderabad: IAS officers opting for home state are bound to bow to political pressures and perform worse than those from other states, said a study. ‘Social proximity and bureaucrats performance: Evidence from India’ has deemed that IAS officers who opted for home state could be highly influenced by political demands and succumb to corruption.

Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh were taken together in the study which gave AP the least rank (close to zero negative effect). It said there was corruption among IAS officers who were determined for home allocation.

While the association for IAS officers refuted the findings and said home state or not, they were under scanner and in the least did they succumb to political needs.

The study which had been making rounds among IAS circles was done by measuring the performances of officers using polls involving the cadre, state civil servants, MLAs, media, business and NGOs.

A senior officer holding a top post and member of the IAS association in TS told Deccan Chronicle, “If there is one insider (state-born officer), the government ensures that there are three outsiders (officers), the ratio is 1:3. Also opting for a home state is not an easy task, it is based on ranking and performance. Only the topmost officers get reservations. State-born officers are anyway in the minority.

“Also, the study says they have questioned IAS officers. Which officer can vouch for another officer, or which IAS officer will make self-admission? On the other hand, local officers can easily understand the condition, while outsiders take time to settle. Also, with anti-corruption bodies under constant radar, no officer would put career at stake.”

The study released in February said, “Our results so far suggest that officers allocated to their home state are deemed to be more corrupt and less able to withstand illegitimate political pressure than officers who are allocated to other states. Local officers may be more susceptible to be captured by the political elite; also, their deeper personal networks in the community they serve may provide more opportunities for bribe-taking as well as a more efficient technology for bribe extraction”.

The study concluded, “Home might be exploited for private gain. This might either be because the opportunities for corruption are greater for home officers who are more trusted and better connected or because they are more likely to be captured by politicians and other members of the local elite.  Home-to-home allocations might lead officers to put more effort into enriching themselves or others rather than in serving the local citizenry.”

Another IAS officer, on condition of anonymity, said, “The finding is an amalgamation of the question asked to various sections of officials and their replies. The paper’s methodology is unsure. The conclusion is based on the answers given in various contexts; it is a ‘vague’ study.”