A battle is brewing between IAS and the 1,700-strong association of the Indian Telecom Service (ITS).
ITS, which says IAS is blocking their promotions, has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and ensure that they are posted as Joint Secretaries and above in every ministry.
“These officers can bridge the gap between the targets and achievements in ongoing projects like BharatNet, Central Monitoring System, e-governance, Digital India Mission, ICT requirements for cashless and digital economy initiatives taken by the government apart from providing leadership to Telecom PSUs,” the ITS Association said in a letter to Modi on December 9.
These officers can become Technical Advisors in Central Government Departments and Ministries apart from IT & Communications-related activities of State Governments to ensure cohesion between Centre and State while implementing the IT & Communication-related policies across India.
The association said a large number of officers at the level of Director and above did not receive promotions to the level of Joint Secretary since 2012-13 because SR Rao an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and the then Additional Secretary (Telecom), had erroneously declared the ITS cadre strength at only 463 against the then actual 1,853. SR Rao did not follow the rules.
The association has stated that the posts of ITS officers in the Department of Telecom (DoT) have vanished and they have been compelled to work in the telecom public sector undertakings (PSUs) such as BSNL and MTNL in degrading terms and conditions.
The letter stated that there has not been any cadre review for the last 30 years and promotions to the level of Joint Secretary have been stopped from 2012, compelling the ITS officers to opt for legal remedies.
Quoting an order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) of Hyderabad, the letter stated it had held that the cadre strength of 463 mentioned by the then Additional Secretary was incorrect and had directed the DoT to conduct meetings of the Departmental Promotion Committee after listing the vacancies in various grades due to death, retirement, resignations and promotions.
The letter said that in spite of the CAT order, the DoT has recommended postings for only 853 officers, leaving the remaining officers without any post.
The letter says that the DoT is trying to coin a new term — “special diminishing reserve” — for the officers other than the 853. This means the ITS officers will be posted in the Junior Time Scale grade — much lower than the one they now hold and wouldn’t be considered for promotion.
The approval of the cadre review in its present form will permanently seal the career prospects of ITS officers and make them bonded slaves of BSNL and MTNL.
“These ITS officers will work in same grade for about 20-30 years and retire without any promotion even though ITS is a prestigious organized Central Group A service of the Indian government like IAS, IPS, IRS and similar others,” said Rama Krishna Nelli, a member of the ITS Association.
Rupesh Dutta / IANS
