Shortage of PCS officers overburdens the cadre

CHANDIGARH: The approach of the Punjab government to dish out additional charges to its provincial services cadre officers at the drop of a hat has started taking its toll on the cadre. This comes at a time when the government is announcing its grand plans of reforming the administration and making governance effective.
So acute is the shortage of Punjab Civil Services (PCS) officers that every state cadre bureaucrat has been saddled with at least two, if not more, charges.In extreme cases, an officer has been asked to handle the charge of three subdivisions, which would ideally require his physical presence in all the three places simultaneously. “The work is naturally suffering, and so is the public, even if we don’t talk about our growing weariness,” an officer reacted while requesting anonymity.
At present, against the sanctioned strength of 288 PCS officers, governance work is being handled by 155 only, since no new examination has been conducted by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) since 2004. Meanwhile, the number of districts in Punjab has grown from 17 to 20 during this period. Further, 50% of the intake which could have come from junior ranks within the government, has also been put on hold following a high court order a few years ago.
In such a scenario, every officer in the state is holding an additional charge of one or more public dealing posts, which apparently is not working out in the favour of the public since the officials, who are at the cutting edge of the governance, cannot be expected to remain present in both their seats at the same time.
There are numerous examples of this. SDM, Sunam, Baldev Singh is holding additional charges of SDMs Lehra Gagga and Moonak while his counterpart in Faridkot, Bhupinder Singh, is holding additional post of SDM Jaito, DTO Faridkot as also the assistant commissioner, Grievances, AC (G).