Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday conferred medals on 11 IAS officers to acknowledge their excellent services — an initiative that had been discontinued soon after its launch in 2014 because of questions within the civil service fraternity about the move.
The 11 officers were felicitated during the Independence Day programme organised by the state government on Red Road in Kolkata.
The officers who received the Chief Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Service included state home secretary B.P. Gopalika, forest secretary Vivek Kumar, finance secretary Manoj Panth, irrigation secretary Prabhat Mishra, health secretary N. S. Nigam, secretary of women and child welfare Sanghamitra Ghosh, power and information and cultural affairs secretary Santanu Basu and MD of WBPDCL P. B Salim. The list also included Sharad Dwivedi, Mukta Arya and Bidhan Roy, the district magistrates of North 24-Parganas, Howrah and Birbhum, respectively.
Awarding IAS officers for their work had begun in 2014. But it was discontinued as several questions were raised after the chief minister had awarded four IAS officers in 2014.
“Several senior officers had wondered whether the award was creating divisions within the cadre as all officials don’t get equal opportunities to deliver services. For example, the panchayat secretary or the health secretary gets a fair chance to deliver public service but the science and technology secretary does not get a similar opportunity,” said a bureaucrat.
There was another reason for senior bureaucrats to oppose the awards at that time. “It is uncommon for IAS officers to receive awards from the chief minister. It puts under strain the idea that the bureaucracy is immune to regime change,” said the bureaucrat.
He also pointed out that soon after the awards had been announced in 2014, several questions were raised in Delhi.
“After the awards had been conferred on the four officers, the names of several eligible IAS officers from the Bengal cadre were omitted from the panel of secretaries and additional secretaries at the Centre. There was a buzz in the IAS circles that the department of personnel and training, the cadre-controlling authority of IAS officers, may react adversely if all India cadre officers received awards from a state government,” said the bureaucrat.
But no such questions cropped up this year as some senior-most officers received the award. “This is because the senior officers have realised they won’t be able to go for central deputation until the state releases them. Many officers could not go for central deputation despite being empanelled only because they were not released by the state,” said an official.