Dimapur, Nov. 26 (EMN): The Nagaland Civil Service Association (NCSA) has asked Chief Minister TR Zeliang to withdraw all NCS officers from election-related duties because, according to the association, the state government’s recent decision to recommend personnel of non-state civil services for selection into IAS-cadre post had shown that the state had 'lost all confidence in NCS officers.'
The NCSA issued a press release on Sunday informing to have written to the chief minister to register “our deep displeasure with the recent outcome”, and also seek his ‘positive intervention’. It listed out three points for the chief minister to act on:
- Review the cabinet sub-committee's decision to recommend the existing vacant post of IAS for selection from non-SCS.
- An inquiry committee be set up and a report be furnished on the facts and actual developments that led to the present and 'unnecessary crisis regarding IAS induction' and appropriate action be taken against the officials responsible, as per the rules.
- As the decision of the state government has shown that the state had 'lost all confidence in the NCS officers,' the government should withdraw all NCS officers from election related duties and responsibilities including proposed RO (Returning Officers) and AROs (Assistant Returning Officers). The government shall be held solely responsible for any adverse action taken against any NCS officers in the event that they are unable to perform their duties in this regard.
It warned the chief minister that should the government fail to address the three demands, the NCSA said to reserve the 'right to resort to any action deemed fit,' without further notice. 'As one of the state services IAS quota which was vacated on the retirement of a NCS inducted IAS officer, is being arbitrarily given to the other services. We stand shocked and outraged at this unprecedented decision of the cabinet to violate a time honoured convention and take it as an act of betrayal.
'It is a big blow to our morale, a major affront to the service and a blatant dismissal of the sacrifice, struggles and efforts of the NCS officers made over the past 50 years to the state. The role of the service has multiplied, and so has the paradigmatic shift in the focus of governance and the NCS has always delivered,' the statement read.
It reminded that it was the NCS officers, numbering a ‘little under 300’, who were stationed at the remotest corners of the state “maintaining peace in all corners of our conflicted state.” The NCS officers, it stated, had earned their position having gone through ‘the rigorous and competitive NPSC (Nagaland Public Service Commission) selection process’.
“We are not here by chance or favour. As our chosen career path we have worked tirelessly to fulfil our duties and roles as administrators, magistrates and policy makers. As mentioned earlier, majority of our officers spent the larger part of their career manning the remotest and most challenging administrative areas of the state. We cannot afford to ‘proxy’ our presence – we are present, available and functioning.
“Through all the numerous challenges in our careers, the eventual induction into the IAS is a career incentive and distinction to look forward to. The state civil services all over the country are the natural and viable feeder-service for the IAS for all practical reasons. To be very plain, the state civil services do the same work as the IAS in every sphere and at every level and the induction into the IAS is a recognition of this fact,” it stated.
The association also stated that the NCS officers have suffered many an injustice for years as a result of the government’s ‘sheer disregard of not only the service but also of government rules and mandates in our state.’
“While other state civil servants in the rest of India and our neighbouring states still hold the encadred posts as HoDs, project directors of all mission mode projects, etc., the NCS find ourselves robbed of all these posts which have been taken away over the years,” the statement read.
