A confederation representing thousands of officers of 20 civil services, including Indian Police Service (IPS), has petitioned Seventh Central Pay Commission complaining of "caste prejudice" and seeking job parity with IAS officers.
In a representation, it termed as "quite unfortunate" the attempts to "run down" members of other civil services by fostering a feeling of superiority among young IAS officers.
The move comes amidst ongoing war of words between officers of Indian Administrative Service and those belonging to other central government services on job-related benefits enjoyed by IAS officers.
"No one disagrees that IAS occupies an important place and performs important function in the government. But claiming that contribution of others, who face no lesser challenges, is inferior and insignificant and the intemperate language used to castigate and disparage other services to prove their point, is not acceptable and deserves to be condemned.
"We have to submit with all responsibility and humility, that it displays a caste prejudice which has no place in a country which accords equal treatment to all. It is a regressive thought antithetical to the mainstream thinking of the twenty first century India, which our recently selected young colleagues represent," Confederation of Civil Services Association (COSCA) said in the representation.
When the country is facing multifarious challenges, creation of a wedge among young officers in the field which has potential to cause irretrievable damage to esprit-de-corps (a French term for team spirit) is totally against the public interest, it said.
Citing similar working profile, the confederation said officers of all India services (IAS, IPS and IFoS) and many central services early in their careers are posted in remote field areas and they interact very frequently.
"Mutual trust and sense of camaraderie is sine qua non for successfully meeting the onerous challenges they face in their jobs. The fostering of feeling of superiority among young officers and attempt to run down members of other services, is quite unfortunate," it said.
