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Senior IAS officials are protesting against the posting of a junior officer of Indian Information Service of the 1982 batch to hold the post of Principal Director General of Press Information Bureau.
Senior officials of the 1973 and 1974 IAS batches have taken up the matter to the Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrasekhar and also to Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, TKA Nair.
The post of Principal DG, PIB, in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will fall vacant at the end of march after superannuation of incumbent Dr Umakant Mishra.
This is a cadre post of Indian Information Service with a fixed pay of Rs 80,000.
As per recruitment rules, the post is to be filled by selection from the seniority list of IIS officers. The essential requirement is minimum two years experience as DG at the Additional Secretary level.
At present, there is nobody eligible in the seniority list. The number 2 name in the list -- D Mukhopadhyay -- has been rejected by the Union Public Service Commission as below benchmark. The next in line has only six month experience as DG and Additional Secretary. In fact, she was promoted to Additional Secretary-level only after relaxation of minimum eligibility conditions.
Minister of State for I&B Anand Sharma has ordered on file to post Neelam Kapoor, presently DG of Directorate of Advertising & Visual Publicity, to PIB as DG in the Additional Secretary level from April 1 with special delegation of powers as head of department to function as Principal DG, PIB.
The minister has thus bypassed the recruitment rules for the post. He reportedly also did not consult the prime minister, who presently is in charge of I&B ministry. In fact, he has ordered the post of Principal DG to be kept vacant until further orders to ensure that Neelam Kapoor functions as Principal DG PIB till she herself becomes eligible for promotion to this post.
The minister has also reportedly not kept the cabinet secretariat informed of this decision for asking a junior and otherwise ineligible officer to officiate as Principal DG, PIB.
The Principal DG, PIB works as the chief spokesperson for all ministries and departments of the government of India. It becomes more crucial during the run up to the Lok Sabha elections as at present. By posting an ineligible junior officer of his preference, the minister has violated the poll code of conduct. Besides he hid these recruitment issues
from the prime minister and cabinet secretariat in such a crucial time.
To avoid problems, Secretary I&B had put up a formal proposal for re-employment/contract of present incumbent Umakant Mishra for a period of one year after his retirement on March 31, as a safe option. However, the proposal was rejected by the minister.