Centre favours fixed tenure for officers: Pachouri

Raipur, Feb 7 (UNI) Union Minister of State for Administrative Reforms and Personnel Suresh Pachouri today said that the Centre favoured fixing the tenure for officers occupying key posts.

Talking to journalists here, he said there were suggestions that having a fixed tenure for district collectors could contribute towards better administration.

Mr Pachouri said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also mentioned at a chief ministers' meeting that he favoured a fixed tenure for district collectors and chief secretaries. The Centre had amended rules to fix the cabinet secretary's tenure as three years.

Pointing out that proposals in this regard should come from the states themselves, the minister said that a few states had already forwarded their proposals. ''We have identified certain posts for fixed tenure and also written to state governments about these posts,'' he added.

Replying to a question about the shortage of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers in Chhattisgarh, Mr Pachouri said that their strength was enhanced to 138 from 100 at the time of the state's formation in November 2000. On the state government's request, the deputation period has been increased to five years, he added.

Stating that senior IAS officers, mainly of super time scale, were not keen to opt for small states, the minister added that five officers already expressed their willingness to come to Chhattisgarh. ''A decision on their requests will be taken soon,'' he assured.

UNI