New IAS officers

The Government of Assam on Friday announced the postings of six new IAS officers in the state, all in the rank of Assistant Commissioners. The appointment of these new officers will certainly strengthen the administrative machinery in the state, and especially with these new recruits being young men and women just out of the LBS National Academy of Administration, the administrative machinery is expected to function with increased vigour and vitality. But taking a close look at the list of the newly appointed officers, one is once again prompted to point out that it reflects very poorly on the educational scenario in general and the institutions of higher education in the state in particular. While half a dozen new IAS officers are being inducted into the government of Assam, not even one is from the state. There is absolutely nothing wrong with people from one state joining as officers in another state, and the people should warmly welcome the new officers by asking them to put in their best efforts in a state that will become their ‘home state’ or ‘cadre state’ for the next three decades or more. But the reality is that Assam has not been able to produce even one IAS officer to be part of the new batch joining the state. The poor performance of candidates from Assam in the central civil service examinations is an old story that should have been seriously addressed by various quarters, including the state government, the state’s universities, the intelligentsia, and of course all those groups and organisations that are in the habit of resorting to agitations against alleged deprivation of the state. Assam today has several universities of repute, starting with Gauhati University, the first and oldest institution of higher education in the entire Northeastern region. Yet, no one has ever heard that any of these universities have ever delved into this serious issue of the failure of candidates from Assam in the central services. There is nothing to doubt the sincerity of the ‘outside’ officers. But it is a fact that the state would accrue more benefits if there were more ‘local’ people, particularly in the IAS and IPS. One must also put on record that while there are a large number of student organisations in Assam, none of these have ever tried to address this issue and take steps to encourage and motivate more ‘local’ aspirants to crack the central civil services.