CSS delegations call on Dr Jitendra Singh, to thank DoPT Minister for approving the mass promotion of ASOs to Section Officers

A delegation of Central Secretariat employees, including Central Secretariat Service (CSS) Forum and Direct Recruits of Limited Departmental Competitive Examination (LDCE), jointly called on the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh in New Delhi They thanked the DoPT Minister for taking personal interest and expediting the mass promotion of Assistant Section Officers (ASOs) to Section Officers last month.

The Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT), Ministry of Personnel had last month approved the mass promotion of 1,592 officials working in the capacity of ASOs to the post of SOs on an ad-hoc basis with immediate effect.

The Minister said, last year alone about 9,000 mass promotions were made and prior to that the DoPT granted 4,000 promotions in the preceding three years.

The members of the delegation said that the promotions had been expedited on the directions of the Minister in charge of DoPT, Dr Jitendra Singh who personally reviewed the entire process.

Dr Jitendra Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is very keen that hardworking and performing officials should be provided with a work-friendly environment and at the same time, be provided with timely Service benefits so that they remain motivated to give in their best for nation-building.

“Government led by PM Modi has been granting mass promotions to employees in order to motivate them and overcome the problem of long stagnation. Another 2,000 promotions in ASO and other Grades are in process and hopefully, they will get promoted by this year’s end,” said Dr Jitendra Singh.

The Minister said that in the last nine years, under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Government has periodically reviewed the longstanding stagnation issues in the various Central Ministries that are a legacy of the past due to pending court cases, lack of vacancies in higher grades and other personnel issues.

The Minister said, last year alone about 9,000 mass promotions were made and prior to that the DoPT granted 4,000 promotions in the preceding three years.

More channels of communication opened up with the various employee Associations in recent years, says the DoPT Minister

Dr Jitendra Singh said the Government is concerned about long stagnation in certain cadres and at certain levels where some of the employees working in the lowest rung of the administration spend their entire service tenure of 30 to 35 years without getting a single promotion. The DoPT Minister said he has discussed the issue with all the senior officers in the Department and several innovative means have been evolved to avoid stagnation at the middle and lower rungs of the administration.

Dr Jitendra Singh regretted that in a large number of cases, stagnation in promotions was the result of litigations prompted by inappropriate decisions taken or rules twisted to give out of-turn promotions by the previous governments.

In a few of the 4,000 promotions cleared in recent years, the Government granted promotions despite the cases being sub-judice, by consulting legal experts and making valid provisions for judicial scrutiny, said the Minister.

The orders for mass promotion of these employees belonging to the CSS cadre were issued after several rounds of high-level meetings in DoPT chaired by Dr Jitendra Singh in the preceding months.

Expressing satisfaction that there is an inflow of more talented and efficient recruits in the Government through UPSC and SSC, Dr Jitendra Singh said, in order to bring in the ease of governance as well as objectivity in empanelment, the government has, in the last nine years, improvised upon the procedures so as to ensure that there are no subjective preferences involved in carrying out the promotions.

“Online database has led to greater accountability and efficiency among the Government workforce,” he said.

Dr Jitendra Singh called upon the CSS delegations to open avenues for the training of their respective cadres by using the Mission Karmayogi platform and organising Chintan Shivers and workshops to raise credibility at work and in society in general.

“All this is meant not only to ensure effective and timely delivery of outcomes for the public but also to enable the employees to perform to the best of their ability,” he said.

Disclaimer: This is an official press release by Pib.