Dilli Ka Babu: Modi cracks the whip

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has begun his second term by sending a strong signal to the bureaucracy that his sarkar will not tolerate corruption. The government has removed 15 senior Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers from service. This comes barely days after it sacked 12 officials, including chief commissioners, principal commissioners and commissioners who were facing serious charges of corruption.

Sources say that the government invoked the Fundamental Rule 56(j) of Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972, for compulsory retirement. While some of these officers were arrested by the CBI on charges of amassing wealth disproportionate to their income, others were facing vigilance inquiries.

From what is emerging from the babu corridors, this may just be the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Apparently, the government has stepped up a process to identify the deadwood at the top rung of the bureaucracy, with a view to retiring several hundreds of non-performers over the next few months.

According to sources, the Cabinet Secretariat and the Central Vigilance Commission have over the past few days given verbal instructions to the vigilance heads in many departments to expedite the process of identifying officers for compulsory retirement. So, will the trickle turn into a flood? Babus have reason to be very nervous.

Dress code for TN babus

A major reason for prescribing dress codes is that clothes convey an image and send a message that employees are professional. The Tamil Nadu government had recently directed all state government employees to wear attire permissible to them reflecting Tamil culture or any Indian traditional dress in order to “maintain the decorum of the office”.

The order issued by the personnel and administrative reforms department, and signed by the state chief secretary, Girija Vaidyanathan, stated that women will have to wear “sarees or salwar kameez or churidars with a dupatta of a sober colour” and men will have to wear “formal shirts with formal pants” reflecting Tamil culture or any Indian traditional dress. It added that “casual attire shall be avoided”.

It added that a male officer who makes an appearance before a court or tribunal or any other judicial forum should wear a “short-buttoned up coat with full sleeves, with trousers”.

“If the officer prefers an open coat, he should put on a tie as well and the clothes should be sober and subdued in colour and design. A woman officer should wear a sari or salwar kameez or churidar with a dupatta of a sober colour.”

Cadre allocation proposal is back

The Modi sarkar is likely to reconsider a proposal by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to allot IAS, IPS cadre after completing the foundation course. Sources say that the department of personnel and training (DoPT) is expected to share its 100-day plan with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) with a recommendation for a unified foundation course on recruitment to top civil services such as the IAS, IPS, IFS, IRS, among others.

This proposal for a unified foundation course was first mooted by the PMO last year. It was suggested that candidates selected by the UPSC would be allotted services not based on their rankings in the UPSC examination but based on a unified foundation course. However, it faced an immediate backlash from babus for attempting to tweak the recruitment process of civil servants and was put in the backburner. Babus feared it would introduce subjectivity in the process of service allocation. But with the Modi sarkar firmly in the saddle, the proposal is likely to face less resistance from the babus this time around.