As many as 22 officers, majority of them belonging to IAS, posted as Private Secretaries (PSs) and Officers on Special Duty (OSDs) in the last UPA government have been put on a compulsory wait by the Centre.
Another nine officers (including two IAS officers), who also worked as PS, advisers and OSD in the last regime, and have more than one year tenure of their posting left have been asked to send their willingness to be posted appropriately by the new government, according to an official order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
Eleven other officers, who were PSs and OSDs of various ministers, have been placed at the disposal of parent cadre as they were from "non-participating services" under the central staffing scheme, it said.
The officers were from Lok Sabha secretariat, NTPC, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), RAW Allied Services and general central services.
However, the name of Alok Singh, a 1995 batch IPS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, was not in these orders. Singh's name was recommended by Home Minister Rajnath Singh for his PS but has been put on hold by the Prime Minister's Office.
The government has called for a "vigilance report" of the 22 officers put on compulsory wait and also given them an option to go back to their parent cadre with the approval of ministers in-charge.
As per rules, an officer shall continue to be borne on the establishments of the organisation in which he or she previously held the post and his or her pay and allowances shall be met by that organisation, till such time he or she assumes charge of a new post.
The services of such an officer during the period of his or her compulsory wait can be utilised by the Establishment Officer (EO) or by the organisation concerned with the approval of the EO under the DoPT, for any specific assignment, the rules said.
