With elections nearing IAS officers posted as DC

Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Nov. 17: Coming as a major reorganisation of Nagaland’s bureaucracy, almost all the deputy commissioners in Nagaland have been changed—all the districts in the state except for Longleng and Tuensang will now be manned by an IAS officer as administrative head.
The state’s Chief Secretary Pankaj Kumar issued an order on Friday. The order comes into effect in the face of the assembly elections impending early 2018.
The change came to light after the anti-graft organisation Acaut wrote a letter to the Election Commission at New Delhi on Sep. 13, 2017 requesting implementation of direct-recruit IAS officers only as deputy commissioners (DC). The Acaut had likewise stipulated that all the police superintendents be IPS cadre officers only.
The letter demanded that no deputy commissioners or police superintendents be posted to their home districts except for Dimapur on ‘tribal lines.’ These clauses the organisation sought were among measures envisaged to bring about ‘Cleaner Elections,’ with particular reference to the forthcoming elections in Nagaland.
Today’s order is a first-of-its-kind for the state because no such orders are issued before election dates are announced. The ECI’s directive was followed by the state government. The model code of conduct is yet to be promulgated.
Another first-of-its-kind for the state: the Election Commission has restructured the roles of the administrations by appointing 60 returning officers (RO) unlike the format of the earlier years when deputy commissioners of the 11 districts and an additional deputy commissioner, in Pughoboto, were RO.
For this year though, the ECI has issued an order that the RO shall be the additional deputy commissioners (ADC) and sub-divisional officers (SDO) only while the deputy commissioners will from now on be district electoral officers (DEO).
Speaking to Eastern Mirror, chief electoral officer of Nagaland Abhijit Sinha said that all the DCs will have overall control on the management. In reply to how the commission would be handling a district that had many constituencies, he said that an RO would be handling one or more constituencies.
“It is for the good that ROs and DEOs are separate because it will allow the DEOs to concentrate more on the management and legal matters especially to help in better conduct. It has been done rightly,” Sinha said.
Sinha however informed that before the Acaut had made the demand, the ECI had already mentioned that electoral posts should be manned by cadre officers.
Also, an NCS officer referred to the context that most of the IAS-deputy commissioners have a mere experience of 5-6 years compared to Nagaland Civil Service officers who have at least 20-25 years of experience in the administration: the officer said that over the years directly appointed IAS officers who ‘come and go’ especially during deputation was a problem when law and order was ‘not under control.’
“NCS officers slog so much but in the end are not appreciated or given the opportunity,” the officer said. It was also said that since vital development decisions have to be made for the betterment of the state, the decision is not given to NCS officers but given to ‘lesser experienced’ officers.
“This year’s elections will be a testing period for everyone because of this shift but the state government bowing down to the demands of Acaut is not treading in the right direction,” the officer said.
Another NCS officer who commented on the issue also said that although the government of Nagaland relies heavily on NCS officers, they are still ‘not given the opportunity although they possess more experience in administration.’
“Unlike many states in India, the NCS officers in the state are inducted into IAS only after serving for at least 20 years that too only from the level of secretary. In Meghalaya all state service officers are inducted into IAS, ” another NCS officer remarked on condition of anonymity.
“If we are also inducted at deputy secy. or ADC level or at least joint secy. level then all districts can be manned by IAS as wanted by Acaut,” the source said.
Another source informed that there are currently 29 direct recruits, 21 state civil service inductees and two non state Civil Service inductees as IAS officers but a few of the direct recruits are on deputation.
The department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms had listed 58 IAS officers in the state in the year 2016-17.