Experts should be first deputed at the entry level: Former bureaucrat

Former bureaucrat Shankar Agarwal expressed that experts should be first deputed as the SDM, collector, magistrate or commissioner level before they get inducted as joint secretary into various ministries.

New Delhi: A day after the Centre selected nine professionals from the private sector as joint secretary in the Government of India, former bureaucrat Shankar Agarwal expressed that experts should be first deputed at the entry level before their induction as joint secretary into various ministries.

Among nine people includes Amber Dubey, head of aerospace and defence at KPMG, joining at the civil aviation ministry, Suji Kumar Bajpayee, working with state-run NHPC, joining in the environment ministry. Dinesh Dayanand Jagdale, CEO of Panama Renewable Energy group, joining in the ministry of new and renewable energy, Suman Prasad Singh into the Ministry of Road Transport.

Agarwal, a 1980 batch retired IAS officer said, "Private experts should be first deputed at the ground level before they get inducted at the top level into the Government of India".

Agarwal went on to say, "We have to look into such an exercise. The experts should be inducted for a limited period. We need to take the bright guy at the initial level. They should be deputed as the SDM, collector, magistrate or commissioner level before they get inducted into the Government of India. Then only they can get the real issues."

Anticipating the outcome of the decision, Agarwal said, "If you directly induct the fresh blood at the top level from the private background, they may not be able to deliver."

This is a major development as experts with domain knowledge will enter the government directly through lateral entry process. Normally, procedure is people who clear the civil service examination they join at the joint secretary level after a thorough process.

The inducted officials would be governed by central government administrative rules and they will enjoy the pay and parks of a joint secretary.

Earlier, the Narendra Modi regime had also initiated the processes of inducting IPS officer at the Joint Secretary level.