UP’s IAS Week: State of bureaucracy behind a “fixed” cricket match

MEDIA reports filed from Lucknow in the last few days have given graphic details about the Sunday’s cricket match that was played between CM XI and IAS XI at La Martiniere Boys College grounds in the capital city of Uttar Pradesh. The reports also mentioned how chief secretary Jawed Usmani’s wife Farah…
cheered her husband’s team, and how CM’s wife Dimple Yadav reached the venue with her kids to cheer Akhilesh Yadav’s team. In a photo finish, IAS officers lost the match by two runs which many say was “fixed” to make the chief minister happy. Like the last year, Yadav was given the Man of the Match award too.
Fair enough. But Durga Shakti Nagpal issue cropped up last year only after the Neta-Babu friendly cricket match. The then 28-year-old SDM in Greater Noida was suspended on a false communal flare-up case though the real reason was her relentless pursuit to crack down on sand mafia who are understandably well networked with a section of the state’s influential political leaders. She was later reinstated.
Most IAS officers in the state acknowledge in private that some UP politicians consider civil servants as their private servants. Transfers are random, and those who don’t toe the politicians’ line, end up getting inconsequential posting. On Tuesday, Allahabad High Court banned the transfer of IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service officers till the re-composition of the Civil Services Board, a mandatory requirement, according to recent court verdicts. It was an embarrassment for the state government which continued to transfer All India Services officers flouting the 2-year-long minimum tenure norm.
The High Court passed the order on a petition filed by a former IAS officer SN Shukla who cited the Supreme Court’s October 31, 2013 order, directing the Centre and state governments to ensure fixed tenure for IAS, IPS etc. within three months.
Despite the problems that surface between IAS and political leaders in UP, the state’s highly active IAS Association, however, steps in to defuse crises though in many cases they fail to get results. Senior IAS officers in the state also make every attempt to keep the chief minister and his “uncles” in good humor.
In the four-day-long IAS Week that was organized between February 13 and 16, political leaders including the chief minister and his family were involved. Chief Minister’s lunch was organized last Friday by principal secretary Rakesh Garg.
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