Why in news?
The conviction and sentencing of H C Gupta, former coal secretary, by a CBI court for corruption has upset the IAS greatly.
How can IAS be reformed?
- IAS has distinct two parts to it- One is its original and core function, to manage the districts; the other is an add-on function, to manage the ministries and policy.
- Both needs different skill set which is still not recognised.
- Amazingly, the core district management function is performed by the least experienced officers.
- The non-core function, on the other hand, is performed by the seniors, regardless of their competence to do so.
- Along with it the youngest officers are asked to do the hardest job of managing local politicians.
- Two things need to be done to fix this mismatch problem.
- One is to build a firewall between the two functions.
- The other is to stop the act of the centre “borrowing” officers from the states.
- It should have its own permanent cadre – not the central secretariat service which is a servicing force – instead of floaters from the states.
Source: Business Standard
