New Delhi
Looking to put a bureaucrat couple in the same cadre so that they may be able to reside together, the Centre is mulling allotment of Gujarat cadre to the IAS- IPS duo and has decided to seek the approval of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Appointments Committee of Cabinet.
The unique case is of 2011-batch IAS officer P Parthiban from Tamil Nadu and his wife and batchmate, Tamil Nadu cadre IPS officer Nisha, who hails from Delhi. Parthiban belongs to the Union Territories cadre, that includes Delhi.
The couple has sought common cadre citing their marriage, as civil services rules allow it. However, the rules bar any member of the service from working in his or her home state, resulting in the conundrum.
The case was sent to a Committee headed by Sanjay Kothari, Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which decides on cases of inter-cadre transfer that require relaxation in existing guidelines.
The matter was first discussed by the committee at a meeting last month and it was decided that, as per the policy, neither officer can opt for the spouse’s cadre as, in each case, it is their home cadre.
“The officers were requested to convey their choice accordingly. However, they have not conveyed their preference till date,” note the minutes of the meeting held last week.
After detailed deliberations, the committee recommended that a proposal be put up for consideration of ACC to provide, in such cases where either of the officers cannot opt for the cadre of the spouse, a choice to the officers to choose the immediate next cadre opted by the officer in the detailed application form submitted to Union Public Service Commission.
An aspirant has to give his or her order of preference in the detailed application form filled as part of the civil services examination process.
If the proposal is approved, P Parthiban and Nisha Parthiban may be transferred to Gujarat cadre (the more deficit cadre between Gujarat and Uttarakhand, the other preferences of the officers), the minutes of the meeting said. .
The committee has sought direction from ACC so that — in case of non-receipt of preference within the stipulated time from the officers concerned — they may be assigned the most deficit cadre subject to receipt of ‘No Objection Certificate’ from the parent cadre as well as recipient cadre, it said.
The ACC is headed by the Prime Minister and has Home Minister Rajnath Singh as its member.
Meanwhile, in another case, West Bengal has declined consent for change of cadre to IAS officer Kritika Sharma citing “acute shortage”.
Sharma, whose spouse is IAS officer Abhishek Anand of Uttar Pradesh, has sought change in her West Bengal cadre. The committee was informed that the West Bengal government is unable to give its consent due to acute shortage of IAS officers in the state cadre.
It was also conveyed that if Abhishek requests for change of his Uttar Pradesh cadre to West Bengal, then no-objection for his cadre change would be considered by the state government.
The panel decided that the proposal for cadre change of Sharma may be processed on receipt of no objection or consent from her parent cadre, that is, West Bengal government, and inform the officer accordingly, the minutes of the meeting said. PTI