Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) on Monday shot-off a strongly worded letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding that the Centre scrap its proposed amendments to the All India Service (AIS) cadre rules which will affect or give more power to the Centre over IAS/IPS officers serving on deputation in states.
In his letter, KCR stated that the proposed amendment seeks to “unilaterally” give the Centre power to take officers on deputation without concurrence of officers or the state government concerned. “This is a dangerous move which is against the Constitutional framework and spirit of cooperative federalism. If the proposed amendments are effected by the union government, the State governments would be reduced to be insignificant entities,” he said.
On January 12, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) sent a letter to chief secretaries of all state governments informing them about the proposed amendments in IAS (Cadre) Rules, 1954, saying that an officer whom the Centre wishes to put on deputation would “stand relieved” from his or her respective cadre, regardless of the concerned state.
These amendments to the IAS (Cadre) rules will essentially allow the Centre to have more control over the deputation of IAS officials to states.So far, apart from KCR, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamul Congress president Mamata Banerjee and a handful of other counterparts have also opposed this move.
The Telangana chief minister also felt that the Centre’s new proposal was clearly “a move to exercise indirect control” on officers working in different states, which KCR also said amounts to “interfering in the functioning of the State governments, targeted harassment of officers and their demoralisation, besides impacting accountability of officers to the State governments.”
He added that the newly proposed amendments would also render state governments as “helpless entities in matters of AIS officers”. Adding that the changes may be ”detriment of the interest of the State and watering down the federal polity of the country,” KCR argued that the proposed amendment “was nothing but amending Constitution of India relating to the Centre-State relations” as well.
The Telangana chief minister also “dared” on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Centre to amend the provisions by the Parliament instead. KCR also said that the Centre’s proposal shows scant regard to the “administrative exigencies and requirements of the States” and said they threaten the spirit of mutual adjustment and accommodation between the central governments and states in the matter of shared All-India Services.
Owaisi backs KCR
Meanwhile, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi welcomed KCR’s move to oppose the amendments, stating that “the proposed amendments will effectively destroy federalism & replace it with Modi Sultanat.”
“Welcome move by CM KCR sb to oppose proposed amendments to AIS Cadre Rules. Modi govt wants to convert states into Municipalities that have no powers. Bharat is a Union of States. The proposed amendments will effectively destroy federalism & replace it with Modi Sultanat,” Owaisi wrote in a tweet.
