Tamil Nadu   

`Full pay, no work' make them restless

By R.K. Radhakrishnan

CHENNAI, JUNE 9. About 20 IAS officers in the State cadre have been having a paid holiday for more than a week now. They have no work. The government has not given them any.

They were posted out at the end of last month and placed in a category known in official parlance as `compulsory wait.' Which means the official waits for the government to give him or her a new post. Until then, the officer can continue to draw his or her salary. No trouble there: the revenue for the salary comes from the taxpayer.

But `compulsory wait' is a category thoroughly despised by the over 700 officers of the All-India Services in the State - the Indian Administrative Service, the Indian Police Service and the Indian Forest Service. A majority of those on `compulsory wait' belong to the 1993 and 1995 batches of the Indian Administrative Service. Most of them were Collectors and have earned a name for having contributed significantly to mitigate problems in the districts they served.

They have left the districts and have come to the capital where they have no accommodation. The transit accommodation cannot cater for such `large numbers' and hence, some stay with their relatives, parents or even friends. In this category there seems to be only one person without a worry — his wife is posted in Chennai.

As days pass, some are getting restless. They have to admit their children in school. But as they are not sure of their place of posting, they will have to wait. The catch here is that though most of the vacant posts are in Chennai, there are a few in the districts as well — notably that of heading the Magnesite Corporation. Also, the posts of Commissioner for Disciplinary Proceedings could be created in the districts. This is generally considered a punishment post — the secretaries who served the former Chief Minister were shunted to these posts after the AIADMK came to power.

"What is happening now is very bad cadre management," said a senior IAS officer. "It affects the morale of the officer community very badly." Many officers want their seniors and the officers association to do something about it.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu

News: Front Page | National | Tamil Nadu | Andhra Pradesh | Karnataka | Kerala | New Delhi | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Updates: Breaking News |

Stories in this Section

• Engineering fee in unaided colleges fixed at Rs. 32,500
• Biomedical waste being disposed of casually
• Panel rulings cause panic among students, managements Date extended
• Methods laid down for disposal of biomedical waste
• Clear methods stipulated for disposal
• Scramble for arts, science courses in city colleges
• Fake medical certificates worry Railways
• Special squads to protect coastal ecology soon
• Subrahmanyam's contribution to freedom struggle recalled
• `Ganga-Kumari scheme more viable than interlinking project'
• Central team's visit kindles hopes in farmers
• `Full pay, no work' make them restless
• Open voter enrolment cells in taluk headquarters: CPI(M)
• Interim orders on deletion of TNPCEE questions likely
• AUT's allegation of norms violation baseless: private colleges
• Government web site on child labour soon
• Poverty `at root of child labour'
• Rs. 51.99 lakhs for rural information system project
• `Education must create good individuals out of children'
• Corporate citizen award for Chemplast Sanmar
• New Villupuram SP warns anti-social elements
• Briefly

Copyright © 2004, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu