KAS plan may hit job prospects

A proposal to exclude 86 departments and the Government Secretariat from the scope of the Kerala Administrative Service (KAS) is likely to have a direct bearing on the employment prospects of freshers.

The recommendation of a six-member Secretary-level committee to restrict KAS to 18 out of 104 departments is reported to impede the induction of young professionals directly into pivotal managerial posts. At present there are 7,552 first gazetted officers’ posts in the 18 departments. Majority of the departments such as Agriculture, Industries, Social Justice, Rural Development, Panchayats and such others recruit professionals directly to these posts.

Going by this scale, had the committee recommended for bringing all departments within the ambit of KAS, it would have led to a four-fold increase in middle-level managerial posts.

Official sources told

The Hindu here on Tuesday that the functioning of many key departments would undergo a qualitative change through the creation of such posts and it would also provide job opportunities for young professionals.

Just as the agricultural officers, commercial tax officers, block development officers and tribal development officers who have been directly inducted into the service, managerial posts in many other departments could also have been filled with professional graduates, after giving due weightage to the serving employees, but such options have not been duly explored, the sources said.

The recommendation that a fixed number of the posts higher to the first gazetted posts in the listed 18 departments may be filled through transfer on the basis of a test conducted by the Public Service Commission on a 1:1 ratio has also given rise to concerns.

Promotion

This would seriously affect the promotion prospects and those in line will have to wait indefinitely for their turn. Exclusion of the Government Secretariat would deprive the officers having field exposure of chances of becoming part of the new system.

Had the committee recommended inclusion of all departments, it would have helped the State reduce its overdependence on IAS officers and the present compulsion to give additional charge of a number of departments to one officer could be avoided too. This would also improve the quality of the State civil service, the sources said.