By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, MAR 15, 2017: IN compliance with the directions of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), a Task Force was constituted by the Department of Personnel & Training on 16/8/2016 for comprehensive study of the cadre structure of all the organised Group ‘A' Central Services and to suggest measures to remove stagnation and other issues.

The Task Force was constituted under the Chairmanship of Mr T. Jacob, Additional Secretary with members from Department of Personnel & Training, Department of Revenue, Department of Expenditure, Department of Defence and Department of Posts. The Terms of References of the Task Force were as under:

- To comprehensively study the cadre structures of all organised Group ‘A' Services in Govt. of India.

- To recommend an ideal structure especially at Apex, HAG plus, HAG and SAG level.

- To suggest the percentage of various Reserves in Organised Group ‘A' services.

- To suggest the ideal recruitment in Organised Group ‘A' services.

- To suggest the way forward to mitigate the stagnation level.

After consultation with all the stakeholders and deliberations, the Task Force has submitted its report on 31/01/2017. The recommendations of Task Force are, inter-alia, mainly on timely cadre review of all the Organised Central Group ‘A' services as well as other Services including Group ‘B' and ‘C' posts, simplification of cadre review procedure/forms, normative cadre structure to ensure better career progression of the Service and functional needs of the organization, increase of deputation reserves, ideal recruitment in the cadre to keep balance between career progression and requirement of the Service and to discourage the ad-hoc measures taken by the cadre controlling authorities.

The Government is yet to consider the report.

Cadre review is the most important tool for better cadre management. The Department of Personnel and Training has issued guidelines and Monographs on better cadre management from time-to-time since 1972. The latest guidelines in this regard were issued in 2010 along with Monograph on various issues of cadre management. The ideal periodicity of a cadre review is five years and the Department of Personnel & Training has been regularly taking up with the Cadre Controlling Authorities to undertake timely cadre reviews. Since 2014, cadre reviews of 16 Central Group ‘A' services have been completed. Besides, a Task Force has been constituted for comprehensive study of the cadre structure of all the Organised Group ‘A' Central Services and to suggest measures to remove stagnation and other issues.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Dr. Jitendra Singh in written reply to a question by Dr. Bharatiben D. Shyal and Ms. Vanaroja R. in the Lok Sabha today.