Issues with Cadre Based Organisation of Civil Services in India
Once the candidatures are selected for All India Services, they are allocated cadres. By cadre we mean the small units of a large organization. The officers of All India Services are organized into cadres, derived from the states they are allotted to work in for as long as they continue to be a member of the respective Service. Creation of Cadre is executive decision and in the past, bifurcation/ creation of All India Services had been made by the enabling provisions of relevant Acts passed by the Parliament.
Cadres in India
In India, there is one cadre in each Indian state, except for three joint cadres: Assam–Meghalaya, Manipur–Tripura, and Arunachal Pradesh–Goa–Mizoram–Union Territories (AGMUT).
Issues with Cadre based organization of Civil Services
In cadre based civil services organisation the members are allotted each state based on the merit and choice of preference. In such system, some members get their choice of cadre and some do not get their choice of cadre. Once a cadre is allotted to a civil servant, he/she have to spend a major part of his/her service period in the allocated cadre.
This permanency of cadre of civil servant is liable to result in inefficiency and ineffectiveness in the working of civil services which is exactly opposite of the purpose for which cadre based civil services was designed. This permanency created inability to think in all India character and civil servants limits themselves for the welfare of the state concerned.
Also, there are fewer avenues to share best practices along with collusion of professionals with local politicians as their career prospects are in the hand of State Government. All of this has indeed resulted in slow change in India.
This apart, the system of a cadre based civil services organization has limited recruitment of persons to important positions in the government to those within a particular cadre. This has made lateral entries nearly impossible, thus reducing chances for recruitment of talent suitable to the position. This issue was raised and analysed in the 2ndAdministrative Reforms Commission’s Report. As the government grapples with a plethora of issues that weren’t traditionally faced by the state, it needs personnel capable of dealing with such challenges. Specialized knowledge of the sector concerned is an important asset that could help in performance of the task at hand. Such expertise could help in dealing with the various complexities that the task presents. However, such talent is concentrated in the private sector which cannot be accessed by the government unless lateral hiring becomes a common practice that is encouraged. A nation is just as good as the people who run it; and the bureaucracy plays a crucial role in helping run the nation, and it is important that there be flexibility in hiring and attracting the best possible talent to governmental positions so that the cause of growth and development is best served.
