In a significant development which is likely to impact the day-to-day functioning of the administration, the AAP government on Wednesday issued a circular stating that if a principal secretary or secr
In a significant development which is likely to impact the day-to-day functioning of the administration, the AAP government on Wednesday issued a circular stating that if a principal secretary or secretary is on leave, the senior-most officer of their department would be responsible to discharge their duties. The circular, which is going to have far-reaching consequences in the bureaucratic circles, said that even if the senior-most officer is not available, the minister in-charge would be free to appoint any officer to discharge the duties of their HoD.
So far, if any officer of the principal secretary would proceed on leave, the link officer entrusted with the job of overseeing his work used to be the officer of the rank of principal secretary only. And ditto was the case with the officers of the rank of secretaries in the city administration. Generally, principal secretaries and secretary rank officers are from the IAS cadre. Even for the special secretary rank officers, who are from the Danics cadre, their link officer used to be from the same cadre.
The new circular has raised a vital question that in case both principal secretary or secretary level officers are on leave, will the government delegate their powers to the officers of the Danics cadre. And if the officer of the Danics cadre too is not available, will the minister in-charge delegate his or her powers to any officer of the DASS cadre.
A senior bureaucrat said that the government decision to delegate powers of any IAS officer to the one belonging to the DASS cadre was unprecedented in the history of the city administration. “Any such decision is bound to derail the day-to-day decision-making,” he said, adding, that the circular was even bound to create friction between officers of different cadres. A source said that the decision was aimed at sending a strong signal to those bureaucrats who were not following its orders.
“The circular has sent a clear message to one and all that if any IAS or Danics officer is unwilling to cooperate with the government, the ministers could even get their works done through the officers of the DASS cadre.”
