Half of the 150 applications received from state civil service officers seeking nomination to IAS are from doctors.
Doctors, who are in state government service, seem to be making a beeline for nomination to the prestigious Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Doctors were so far not allowed to be nominated to IAS, but the unprecedented rush comes after the state government lifted the restriction recently.
“We are seeing a big rush from doctors. We have so far received some 150 applications from state government employees seeking nomination to IAS, of which, at least 75 seem to be from doctors,” said a senior official.
The official said that the high aspirational value attached to being part of IAS could be the primary reason behind this rush.
“Doctors were denied the opportunity (to be nominated to IAS) so far. Now, they are hitting back with a vengeance,” he said.
Until recently, rules prohibited government doctors from seeking nomination to IAS. However, the rules were changed recently to allow doctors, engineers as well as officers of other technical cadres to seek nomination.
Another important change made was that any class I officer in the state government, who has completed eight years in service, can now apply for nomination on his own. Earlier, the nomination was done by government departments, giving rise to chances of favouritism.
“In Gujarat, secretariat, co-operation and sales tax cadres have traditionally contributed the most number of officers selected for appointment to IAS. We have now thrown open the door for other cadres and made the process more competitive. This will ensure that only the best candidates are nominated to IAS,” said K Srinivas, principal secretary (personnel) of general administration department.
The number of applications received by GAD so far is 150, but this is likely to go up as the last day for applying is February 10.
“We will start scrutinising the applications shortly after that. We will seek the applicants’ confidential reports and service records, which will be followed by an objective evaluation test. The CRs and the test will carry equal weightage of 50% to decide the officers who will be in the zone for consideration,” said an official.
According to officials, for the current year, there are three posts in the state’s IAS cadre to which officers of state civil services, barring those belonging to GAS, GPS and GFS, will be appointed through this process.
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