Officers of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department have raised objections to the appointment of Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers as project directors, District Rural Development Agency in the rank of Additional Collector (Development). Such officers have been appointed in Kanniyakumari and Theni districts based on an order issued in July.  

The department is responsible to take development and welfare schemes of the government to rural areas. It creates basic facilities, including construction of bridges, roads; provides drinking water, toilets and housing; and implements the VB-G RAM-G Scheme.

“We are also involved in election work, census, grievance redressal and gram sabha. All this requires a lot of interaction with the public. The IFS officers, however, are not trained for such work. They have expertise in dealing with people living in and around forests and wildlife,” said an official on condition of anonymity. 

“We do get IAS officers for the same post. Though this experience comes in handy in their career and they can interact well with residents, it puts our department officials at a disadvantage. Our people are forced to search for postings in an ad hoc manner. The IFS officers are kind of tough to interact with since they are from the uniformed services,” he added.

The appointment of IAS and IFS officers is also affecting the promotions of officials of the department who have been recruited through the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission. Those who entered the Rural Development department service 7-8 years ago are not sure when they will get their promotions. The officials have submitted petitions to various officials hoping to get relief.