New Delhi, April 9 -- In a major administrative development, 23 officers from the Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Services (DANICS) have been promoted to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) against vacancies spanning 2021 to 2024. This move has brought renewed attention to the growing unrest among Delhi Administration Subordinate Services (DASS) officers, who have been demanding cadre restructuring for decades.
The promotions cover vacancies arising between January 2021 and December 2024, with officers like Jitendra Kumar Jain, Ravi Dadhich, Ranjana Deswal, and Dr. Anil Agarwal among those elevated.
The selections follow a legal push by the officers through the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), where they argued that the positions rightly belonged to them.
While DANICS officers now join the elite IAS ranks, frustration brews within the DASS cadre - considered the backbone of Delhi's bureaucracy. Officers allege that no cadre review has been conducted in over 50 years, despite rules mandating a five-year review cycle. Grade-II DASS officers often face a career-long wait for a single promotion, only to be inducted into DANICS at a lower pay grade, a concern many have flagged as demoralising.
A recent meeting between a delegation of DASS officers and Chief Minister Rekha Gupta has brought the issue into sharper political focus. Simultaneously, DANICS officers have also reached out to the CM, reflecting deep administrative churn.
The Sahai Committee's 2018 recommendations, which proposed new promotional grades for DASS officers, remain unimplemented.
Although the Delhi High Court permitted the creation of 500 senior posts in 2023, DASS officers allege bureaucratic inertia has blocked the rollout.
With the Union Home Ministry now reviewing the matter, DASS officers await long-overdue reforms to address stagnation and restore parity in Delhi's administrative framework.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.