THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The new government which is set to assume the office in another two weeks will face a dearth of senior-level IAS and IPS officers as another set of officers are preparing to leave the state on deputation to the Centre. This is in continuation with the trend seen in the last five years when a large-scale migration of officers from the state took place.
The latest in line planning to leave the state after completing his cooling off period of three years in the state is Transport and Higher Education principal secretary Tom Jose, who has applied for the chairmanship of the Mumbai Port Trust and is one among the three shortlisted for the post.
There are three officers from the state already heading three major ports in the country Mara Pandyan who is chairman, Mormugao Port Trust, L Radhakrishnan chairman of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and Paul Antony, chairman, Cochin Port Trust.
NoRKA secretary T K Manoj Kumar and Tourism Secretary V Venu are also understood to have applied for the Central deputation, as both of them have completed their mandatory term in the state and are eligible for transfer. The shortage of officers have left a void at the helm of many key departments including PWD and Health.
The talk in the bureaucratic circles is that Bishwa Nath Sinha who recently took charge as PWD secretary after spending a long period at the Centre is keen to go back to Delhi. But as he has to complete a minimum of three years in the state, he has been posted as Additional Resident Commissioner of Kerala House in Delhi so that he can technically continue in the Kerala cadre.
The state of affairs with senior police officials in the state is no different. Many officers at the level of DIG and IG are already on deputation and more are expected to leave soon. One such instance is the current Kannur Range IG Sudesh Kumar who would leave the state soon as he is expected to be posted as IG in Border Security Force.
The exodus of civil servants began after the LDF Government took over. "The treatment meted out to bureaucrats was not acceptable to many. Mohammed Riyasuddin was shunted out from chief secretary's post to an insignificant department while another chief secretary Lissie Jacob had to take recourse in VRS to salvage her pride," said a senior bureaucrat who requested that his name not be mentioned.
According to an officer in the General Administration Department say that though the central deputation reserve for IAS officers in the state is 46, the quota has already been exceeded after Sanjeev Kaushik, L Radhakrishnan, Marapandyan and Ajay Kumar left the state on deputation.
"Under certain circumstances, the quota can be exceeded under the presumption that some officers would return to their cadre state", he said. At tyhe same time there is a scarcity of officers planning to come back to Kerala.
Three officers who were expected to come back are Union Secretary of Shipping K Mohandas, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India member Elias George whose deputation period is expiring this month and Spices Board chairman V J Kurian whose deputation ends in May. But that may not happen.
While Mohandas, being the seniormost officer in service at the Centre is a strong contender for the post of Cabinet secretary, it is learnt that Elias George as a member of TRAI has been granted another two years extension. His wife Aruna Sundararajan, another bureaucrat who had been on a sabbatical, managed to get a posting in Delhi.
Clearly the new government is going to struggle to keep the bureaucrats' roster ticking.
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