Thiruvananthapuram: IAS officers in Kerala will go on mass casual leave on Monday to protest against the vigilance director’s “abuse of power” and registration of cases against senior civil servants.
Representatives of the IAS association will meet Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at 9 am in his office at the Secretariat. Ahead of the meeting with the CM, the association members will call on the chief secretary.
The main demand will be to end the victimisation of IAS officers by vigilance. Since the note prepared by the Association had questioned the continuation of Jacob Thomas in the present post, the members are likely to raise the matter before the Chief Minister. The president of Kerala IAS Association has drafted a memorandum which will be submitted to the Chief Minister. It will point out whether it was right to allow an officer whose integrity was prima facie doubtful and not beyond suspicion, to sit in judgement as vigilance director on the conduct of other civil servants.
The association will also place before the Chief Minister the alleged illegal actions of the vigilance director. It is likely to demand the removal of the officer from the post to end the victimisation of civil servants. While many officers believe that removal of the said officer was not a long-term solution, but in the current circumstances it would be a short-term relief.
The IAS association also called for an end to the misuse of draconian provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act for targeting honest officials. Bureaucrats were unwilling to take decisions fearing victimisation.
The officers say vigilance in Kerala was targeting officials under Section 13 D of PC Act. The association hoped that the draconian section will be scrapped during the Budget Session of Parliament. Union finance minister Arun Jaitely is on record saying that in the era of liberalisation, having such a draconian law would seriously affect decision making.
Though the Bill was to be presented during the Winter Session of Parliament, it could not happen because of the protests over demonetisation.
