CHANDIGARH: While Punjab politicians including chief minister Amarinder Singh and former CM Parkash Singh Badal
are opposing the merger of UT DSPs with DANIPS cadre fearing it would undermine Punjab’s cliam over Chandigarh, on the other hand, officials of Punjab and Haryana have been unwilling to join UT administration on deputation for years now.
Be it IAS or state-cadre officers, UT has ceased to be the most sought-after destination for officers. While some officers say the decline in preferring UT was because of the cadre war between UT-cadre officers and state-cadre officers, some cite state-cadre officers getting sidelined in Chandigarh as the reason. In the last one year, Punjab had sent four panels for the post of managing director (MD) of Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation (Citco), but till date no name has been finalised. Last September, the UT administration had rejected the first panel because everyone on it had come to the IAS via promotion and not direct induction.
The fourth panel of the three IAS officers sent now comprises 2005-batch Basant Garg, 2006-batch Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu and 2008-batch Sanjay Popli. The UT administration had sought the willingness of 2005-batch Sibin C, 2008-batch Amit Kumar, and Punjab bureaucrat Neelima, as their names were forwarded to the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA), Punjab sent over a fresh panel instead.
A senior officer of Haryana government said the cadre war was at its peak in 2014, when then home secretary Anil Kumar who was Haryana cadre IAS, had even written a letter to the Haryana chief secretary stating that some of the decisions of the UT administration have jeopardised the interests of Haryana as a state. He had even written that since December 2011, the UT administration has taken away all key departments from Haryana officials and given them to the UT-cadre officials, who are far junior.
According to the norms, 60% bureaucrats in Chandigarh come from Punjab and 40% from Haryana. The post of adviser is reserved for a UT cadre officer.
A state-cadre officer of Punjab said the UT administration over the years has started giving importance to UT cadre officers instead of Punjab and Haryana cadre officers, which was not the case earlier. In some cases, even junior UT cadre officers were given important departments whereas senior officials of Punjab and Haryana were sidelined, he added.
