The honest IAS officers and their bonafide decisions need to be protected so that they do not shy away from taking administrative decisions, a body representing them said on Sunday.
It also asked the Centre to revoke the suspension of senior IAS officer G K Dwivedi which has led to demoralization in the rank and file of the officers working in the central secretariat. “Dwivedi is known for his integrity and hard work. In his last two years of his tenure he has implemented about 17 important initiatives of the government,” said the central IAS officers’ association, which represents over 4,900 members of the prestigious service working across the country.
Dwivedi, along with three of his junior officers in Home Ministry, was suspended after it was noticed that the license of an NGO of controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik to receive foreign grant was renewed by a departmental unit headed by him. A delegation of the association met Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh to raise various such issues concerning them and sought protection to all civil servants.
It expressed concern that due to lack of legal protection, inadequacy in law, the officers are facing great difficulties apart from huge financial loss in fighting the legal cases and also the “social stigma”.
The association cited legal cases against former Telecom Secretary Shyamal Ghosh, former coal secretaries P C Parekh and H C Gupta, former IAS officer in Space Ministry Veena Rao, “all of whom are known to be officers of good reputation and are now retired”.