With three IAS officers opting for Voluntary Retirement from Service (VRS) in less than three years in Tamil Nadu, the issues of postings and functional autonomy for civil servants have become a point of debate.
Science City Vice-Chairman U. Sagayam had on October 2 submitted his application for early retirement from service. A few months ago, senior civil servant Santhosh Babu had put in his papers and Vijay Pingale, a young IAS officer, had quit in 2018. All three had a reasonably clean reputation in the corridors of power.
Sources close to them indicated that they felt restricted due to lack of functional autonomy. Besides, there was a feeling of being relegated to relatively “insignificant” positions.
Limited scope
Mr. Sagayam has been serving in the Science City for over six years, a post, which a cross-section of the bureaucracy believes, offers limited scope for talented and workaholic civil servants in terms of public interface and administrative skill.
Mr. Babu quit following a controversy over the government seeking to revise the tender norms for the multi-crore BharatNet project. Mr. Pingale was in the news for putting in place a system in the Greater Chennai Corporation to fix accountability and penalise contractors in case of shoddy execution of civic work.
None of the three officers has commented publicly on the reasons for their resignation.
Opinion is divided on such action. Some accomplished former civil servants were of the view that quitting mid-way was not a solution. “An IAS officer should fight and not surrender to any forces. It [pressure] is not happening to one or two officers but to many people. To resign because of pressure or pull is not advisable,” said retired civil servant Swaran Singh.
‘Nothing is insignificant’
Former Home Secretary Naresh Gupta said, “There is always scope for serving the people even in ‘insignificant posts’. It may be a transient phase. A bit of a philosophical approach could help them.”
Retired IAS officer K. Dhanavel said, “If a particular officer is constantly discouraged by not being given a significant post, naturally the government may lose an honest person. There is a tolerance limit.”
In a good governance system, an officer should not be kept in the same post continuously for more than three years, he said.
When contacted, Minister for Personnel and Administrative Reforms D. Jayakumar dismissed the issue, saying, “It was their personal decision to quit the civil services.”
