Dalit officials upset over state’s reply to NCSC

In the recent reply to NCSC, Revenue Secretary, K Nantha Kumar, had stated that based on TNPSC notification of 2010 for the selection of group-I officials, 56 candidates were recruited, which included 23 backlog vacancies for Dalit officials.

In the GOs, passed in the years 2010 and 2013 by the state government, TNPSC was directed to give priority to 23 Dalit officials in promotion, but an order passed by the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, in 2014, had requested not to process the GO passed in 2013. However, another GO passed in 2016 had once again directed the TNPSC to give priority to Dalit officials in promotion.

Nantha Kumar had further pointed out to the NCSC that writ petitions are pending before the High Court since 2015 and stated that the promotion is under active consideration of the TNPSC and a reply will be sent to the NCSC in due course.

The letter sent by the Revenue Secretary had angered the Dalit officials as they said that government is not intended in following its own GOs.

Speaking to DT Next, a Dalit official, on request of anonymity, said that the reply was intended to delay the promotion to them and the state government is not following its own GOs. Also, the petitions were only filed in the court and they were not even heard.

“Only if the court had given stay against the GO, the government should take that into consideration, but the TNPSC, under political influence, is acting against the Dalit officials,” the official added.

The board for promotion would be formed by TNPSC by the end of the year and a solution for the problem had to be sought before that. “The government wants to drag the issue till the board is formed and then they are planning for some emergency orders,” said the official.