There is a need to check arbitrary suspensions of IAS officers on the whims and fancies of state governments, according to the over 4,600-member strong IAS Officers' Association.
A delegation of IAS officers met Union minister Jitendra Singh and asked the government to ensure good governance by protecting honest officers.
"There is a need to check arbitrary suspensions of IAS officers by state governments. The suspensions should not be left to the whims and fancies of the states," Association's secretary and senior IAS officer Sanjay R Bhoosreddy told PTI.
He said there have been past incidents in which some of the officers including Uttar Pradesh cadre Durga Sakthi Nagpal were "arbitrarily suspended". Nagpal, a 2010-batch IAS officer, was in the news in 2013 for taking on the sand mining mafia and cracking down on illegal construction in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad district.
She was in July, 2013, suspended by the Uttar Pradesh government, a move which was believed to have been effected at the behest of some politicians hailing from that area. Nagpal was later reinstated. She is now working as Officer on Special Duty to Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh.
In a memorandum submitted to Singh, Minister of State for Personnel, the delegation raised various issues related to working conditions in the civil services.
Bhoosreddy highlighted the low availability of officers at the level of Deputy Secretary and Director, who do "leg work" in administration.
"There is low availability of IAS officers at Deputy Secretary and Director level. It would be better if the service period required to be put in before going on deputation to the Centre may be reduced to seven years from at present nine years," he suggested.
There are 4,619 IAS officers working in the Centre and in the states against the sanctioned strength of 6,270.
