Govt Not Keen On Taking Power From States

<div>The Centre is not keen on taking back the power vested with states to suspend an IAS or IPS officer, officials said today, adding new rules are being worked out to shield bureaucrats from any unjust disciplinary actions.<br /><br />Officials in the Ministry of Personnel said that existing service rules were being reviewed to further provide safeguards to All India Service personnel--Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS).<br /><br />The government is not considering to encroach on states' power to act against an All India Services officer working in their jurisdictions, they said.<br /><br />At present, the state government as a cadre controlling authority has powers to transfer or suspend an officer of the elite services.<br /><br />The demand to remove states' power to suspend an IAS, IPS and IFoS officer had come up against the backdrop of controversial suspension of Durga Sakthi Nagpal, a 2010 batch IAS officer, by Uttar Pradesh government.<br /><br />The representatives of IAS, IPS and IFoS associations had also met Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions V Narayanasamy here recently to demand change in service rules.<br /><br />The three associations of the elite services had demanded that the power of suspensions should be vested with the Centre instead of states in case of officers working in their jurisdiction among other changes in the rules.<br /><br />The associations had demanded a mandatory provision for the governments to issue a 'show cause notice' with a minimum period of 15 days to any officer before suspension and for states to compulsorily seek prior concurrence of the central government to suspend the officer giving the facts and the grounds for taking the action.<br /><br />28-year-old Nagpal was suspended on July 27 ostensibly for ordering demolition of a wall of an under-construction mosque without following the due process.<br /><br />The officer, as SDM, had taken action against sand mining mafia active in Gautam Budh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh.<br /><br />(PTI</div>