Bureaucrats back Durga, say depoliticize IAS

GREATER NOIDA: Several serving and retired officers in Uttar Pradesh's bureaucracy concede that the services must share some blame for the turn of events that saw IAS officer Durga Sakthi Nagpal suspended for doing her duty. UP's babudom wants to use this case to build public pressure on two counts: 'depoliticize' civil services and 'decriminalize' politics.

"Association members should meet the CM for a fair enquiry. Bureaucrats too are to blame. The suspension letter was after all signed by an IAS officer," said PC Chaturvedi, former union labour & employment secretary.

Officers also said many bureaucrats choose to toe the line of the ruling political dispensation. To make civil services officers accountable to the Constitution and not to ruling politicians, they want reforms in the Services on the lines of Supreme Court guidelines for police reforms.

They squarely blame the state government for not probing Nagpal's matter before suspending her. Officers believe now's the time to demand that politics be rid of criminal elements, following the SC directions on the same earlier last month. "We demand political parties ask their MPs and MLAs with pending criminal cases to immediately quit," said EAS Sarma, former Union power secretary.