News

Volume 8 Issue 1 - January 01, 2011

Another glaring episode of blatant discrimination in the Civil Services

D.N.I.S. News Network, India: Once again, the ambitions of two visually impaired persons got buried in the files of the Government of India. Both had qualified the Civil Services Examination in 2009 and were awarded services well below their rankings.

30 year old, Ajit Kumar, an O.B.C., is an Assistant Professor in Delhi University. He got rank 208 and was offered the Indian Railway Personnel Service. Kumar declined. “I.R.P.S. was given to those as low down as rank 512. At my rank for an O.B.C. candidate, I was eligible for the Indian Foreign Service,” said Kumar.

Ashish Singh Thakur, who got rank 435 was offered the Indian Postal Service. “Candidates below my rank were awarded the Indian Revenue Service,” he stated. Thakur has reluctantly taken up the offer and is currently undergoing training in Bilaspur.

Both had approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (C.A.T.) for the redressal of their grievance. C.A.T. directed the Union Government to induct the duo in the Indian Administrative Service (I.A.S.) “within 8 weeks” citing a July, 2010 order that directs the Government to fulfill the backlog for disabled candidates in Civil Services, particularly visually impaired candidates in I.A.S. The Court had pointed out that in the 1995 to 2006 period, only one I.A.S. vacancy was filled for visually impaired people as against the eight seats.

C.A.T.’s deadline of eight weeks to the Government ran out on December 8, 2010.