Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, opposing the proposed amendments to the IAS (Cadre) Rules, 1954.
He argued that it struck at the very root of the countryâs federal polity and State autonomy. He urged the Prime Minister to engage with the States to further strengthen the nationâs federal spirit.
The ramifications were ‘ominous’ and neither the bureaucracy nor the state governments, the two important stakeholders, welcomed it, he added.
In his letter to Modi on Sunday, Stalin said many of the state governments were woefully short of officers at specific seniorities, ‘primarily due to the wrong cadre management policies followed by the Union government’. One of the provisions empowers the Union government to unilaterally draft the services of any officer without his/her consent and without the concurrence of the State government concerned.
While the Union is availing the common pool from Group-I officers at the national level, the State governments solely depend on the limited pool of IAS officers available in the State.
The state governments are on the forefront of implementation of various programmes including the schemes of the Union government at the State level.
The States also face frequent natural disasters which demands services of IAS officers in the State more than elsewhere.
Under such circumstances, forcing the State governments to depute officers would surely aggravate the ‘governance deficit’ in various States due to shortage of officers and also it is an ‘affront’ to the administrative frame work of the states, Stalin said.