Delhi Durbar: Gujarat-cadre officers not in majority

Jaswinder Singh Baidwan

Akhran da mureed
Staff member
Battling a perception that greater number of officers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat is being inducted into the Centre, data indicates the overall numbers of officers at various levels is far below compared to those from other states.
Information suggests of the 449 officers — Joint Secretary, Additional Secretary and Secretary-level posting with the Centre — only 16 are currently from Gujarat cadre, while 11 other states are better represented, official sources said.
Responding to a series of reports on the dominance of Gujarat cadre and bias in the appointment of Indian Administrative Service officers to senior positions at the Centre, the sources said as on September 9, Uttar Pradesh has 54 officers followed by Kerala with 36 and Bihar with 32 officers on deputation to the Centre.
Providing a break-up, the sources said of the 97 Secretaries to the Government of India, those from Gujarat are seven, as against 19 from UP, Tamil Nadu (8) and Bihar (7).
Besides Additional Principal Secretary to Prime Minister PK Mishra, others serving as Secretaries include Hasmukh Adhia (Revenue), PK Pujari (Power), Vijay Laxmi Joshi (Drinking Water and Sanitation), Tapan Ray (Corporate Affairs), Commerce and Industry (Rita Teaotia).
Among 87 Additional Secretaries, Bihar has nine officers, followed by Assam (7), Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh (6 each), the source said adding among the Joint Secretaries, considered to be the cutting edge of governance, Gujarat comes at the 17th spot in terms of numbers of officers posted in Delhi. Additional Secretary (Expenditure) Girish Murmu is from Gujarat while Ashim Khurana is the Secretary in Union Public Service Commission. Of the 265 Joint Secretaries at the Centre, those from Gujarat are just seven, which in terms of percentage accounts for under 3.5 per cent.
 
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