Proposed amendments to IAS (Cadre) rules ‘draconian’, should be buried: Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren to PM Modi

Describing the proposed amendments to IAS (Cadre) rules as draconian and intended to promote unilateralism, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Saturday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “bury” those proposals. The Jharkhand government had received a proposal from the Centre seeking certain amendments in the IAS (Cadre) Rules, 1954 and the state already communicated its disagreement on it, Soren said in a letter to Modi.

“In the meantime, we have received another draft of the proposed amendments in the cadre rules of All India Services which, prima facie, appear to be more draconian than the previous proposal.

“I feel constrained to write this letter to express my strong reservations and apprehensions about these proposed amendments and strongly urge you to bury it at this stage only,” the letter read.

He said that the proposed amendments seem to be contrary to the spirit of cooperative federalism and an attempt to control officers of a state where the political party in power is different from the one at the Centre.

The Union government has proposed an amendment to IAS (Cadre) rules, which would enable it to post IAS officers on central deputation, bypassing reservations of state governments.