Out of these, 6,210 officers are in the rank of section officer, Under Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Director and Joint Secretaries — and 1,839 of these positions are vacant.
Officials from the Central Secretariat Service protested outside the department of personnel and training (DoPT) in North Block on Friday, citing the lack of regular promotions and denial of benefits, such as enhanced salary and pension, by the government, officials familiar with the matter said.
Across the 70-odd ministries, there are 12,000 officials who are currently supposed to be employed by the departments and ministries,” said Manmohan Verma, general secretary of the CSS Forum. “Of these, 4600-4700 positions are stills vacant.”
Out of these, 6,210 officers are in the rank of section officer, Under Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Director and Joint Secretaries — and 1,839 of these positions are vacant
CSS officials, who form a part of the so-called group A services, have been protesting this delay in promotions for months now, with no response from DoPT.
While representatives of the forum claimed 1,500 officials had joined the protest on Friday, HT could not independently verify the same.
HT also reached out to DoPT but did not receive a response immediately.
According to Verma, no promotions have happened in the last six years.
“The CSS Forum, representative body of all the Central Secretariat Service Officers, have met with the MoS Dr. Jitendra Singh on 08.02.2022 for expeditious action on above long pending issues of CSS cadre,” Verma said. “However, DoPT is unmoved despite clear instructions of the MoS to the officers of the DoPT. ” Friday’s protest was a direct result of this , he added.
According to a CSS official familiar with the matter, the exam that is conducted to induct such personnel has also been on hold since 2017. “The last time the exam was conducted was in 2017,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
Verma listed another problem — CSS officials being denied a change in deputation even after the prescribed number of four years, according to him.
The CSS official mentioned above said “promotions have been withheld citing pending litigations in the Supreme Court”. His reference is to litigation regarding reservation in promotions.
The official added that “promotions in all other cadres of central government are happening in full swing with the conditions of final judgment of cases filed in the matters”.
He was referring to the five-judge bench judgment in the Jarnail Singh case in June 2018, that provided for “accelerated promotion with consequential seniority” for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe members in government services. The Court asserted that the state government had to find a means to implement the judgment.
