The lower division clerk is recruited directly through a competitive examination by the Staff Services Commission since 1976. No important decision or policy can be taken or adopted or imple­mented without the approval or knowledge of the cabinet secretariat. The British PM has his secretariat to give him advice and suggestions. In spite of this there is a lot of importance of the PM. The PM very often is to answer questions raised by the members of parliament and the answers to these questions are prepared by the PMO. Superintendents are in charge of their respective sections. But in practice this difference is not strictly adhered to. Mr Gopalaswami Ayyangar suggested, “A secretary should not be immersed in files and burdened with routine. Before publishing your articles on this site, please read the following pages: 1. The upper division clerk has a similar set of functions to perform but, in addition, he notes on simple cases and assists in their disposal. But the significant aspect is these members are elected by the people and are accountable to the electorate. Central Secretariat Service (CSS) The Central Secretariat Service Rules, 1962. It is because, like PM, the ministers are political persons having no or very little experience in administration. In the central secretariat there are also a number of posts or ranks. The desk officer reports to deputy secretary/director and the desk attaches sends paper to undersecretary or directly to the deputy secretary/director. About the nature and role of these posts, Richard Tottenham suggested that “there should be no distinction of function but only of pay between a joint and an additional secretary. The Administrative Reforms Commission visualised the secretary’s role primarily as one or “coordinator, policy guide, reviewer and evaluator”. Reversion to departments/states is just to complete a formality. These conventional devel­opments which started as experiments have come to stay: (D) Central Administrative Pool (CAP) and Finance and Commerce Pool (FCP). While justifying the practice of appointing officers on special duty, the government contended that “OSD are appointed on two different criteria. Lal Bahadur Shastri as PM,seriously felt the necessity of experienced civil servants in respect of advice or suggestions. The administration is becoming more and more complex and this has ultimately necessitated a secretary. But the naked fact is that he alone does not take a decision. The pool was to include officers drawn from the Indian Administrative Service, Class I officers of the central services including the Central Secretariat Service and Class I officers of state services. Society has been formed by working Govt. From the time of Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister the responsibility and functions of the cabinet secretariat have increased voluminously. It was also proposed that persons with specialised qualifications would be directly recruited from outside the services from higher age levels. We can say that the secretariat is an office where large number of civil servants work. The British PM generally consulted a person about the administration. (3) An essential duty of the legislature is to make law. It may mean any position at a given time depending upon ‘the nature and type of work’. But behind the exercise of power there is the PMO. The discontinuation of recruitment to this pool after 1946 and depleting of the strength caused by retirement of British officers, transfers arising out of partition and routine retire­ments necessitated a re-examination of the entire question of manning superior secretariat posts. In subsequent years this function of the Cabinet Secretary has become the most prominent one. Trend Tracking. So even if all the secretaries draw the same salary, they may not necessarily enjoy equal rank. It means ministry of home affairs; similarly the finance department or external affairs department. A typical office normally has a Section Officer (Class I and Class II), four assistants and a number of upper and lower division clerks. In this way he acts as a link. At the central level there is the Prime Minister and to assist him there is a council of ministers. The General Secretariat provides the organisation with comprehensive corporate services in the areas of IT, human resources, finance, facilities management, security and meeting services. He ran or conducted the central administration without exclusively depending upon his cabinet colleagues or civil servants. The posts of assistants and section officers are filled partly by direct open recruitment and partly by promotion of upper division clerks and assistants. The central secretariat is a collection of a variety of ministries and departments. The designation OSD has distinctiveness in the hierarchy, which has an attraction. (3) Every desk officer has clerical facilities added. The Administrative Reforms Commission recommended that the holder of the post of Cabinet Secretary should stay in the post not more than four years. Content Filtrations 6. Upper Division Clerks perform functions similar to those of assistants except that they are not ordinarily required to deal with cases which are of an important nature. But since the Cabinet Secretary is the head of this organisation the main burden falls upon him. We shall now deal with the structure of central administration. Nehru had exceptional personality and experience in many matters. A Secretary is a single person. In his letter dated 22 October 1945 Lord Wavell wrote to the Secretary of State for India, Lord Pethic Lawrence,Coats is setting up a small secretariat which may develop later into a real council secretariat capable of serving the Executive Council and its committees and also perhaps a Committee of Indian defence. (2) Guard file and card indices maintain detailed record of events. For a better and efficient management of administration an artificial separateness has been done. Formerly, such secretaries were designated as the secretary-general or the principal secretary. (3) The Cabinet Secretariat is a big department consisting of all the ministries of the union government. First, we only place officers on special duty if we are convinced that the officer brings about economy very much greater than the money we spend while we employ him on special duty”. That is, home ministry and home department are administratively unrelated. The Central Secretariat is a policy making body of the government and is not, to undertake work of execution, unless necessitated by the lack of official agencies to perform certain tasks. Similarly, officers serving m the field should possess a secretariat experience and an acquaintance with the outlook, the methods and the difficulties of the Central government. Plagiarism Prevention 4. The Secretariat Procedure Committee also known as Llewellyan Smith Committee of 1919 pleaded for the extension of the tenure period from three to four years. The period for additional secretary is four years. The CEB is headed by the secretary of personnel department. Sometimes it seeks advice from the minister. Hence in Britain both the cabinet secretary and cabinet secretariat were the results of evolution or product of times. Moreover, state govern­ments are not always willing to part with their best officers. At the top of the hierarchy comes the department which is headed by the secretary himself or in some cases by an additional/special secretary. A small ministry has at least one joint secretary, whereas a large ministry, may have three or more joint secretaries. The strength of all India services is so fixed with reserve quota so that officers for deputation may be spared by the state and both the administrations may garner the mutual advantages of the tenure system. The ministers cannot run the administration or formulate any policy without materials or data and these are to be supplied by the secretariat. Each department (or sub department or branch department) has a secretary. It is, in fact, the administrative hub of central administration. Since British days, a level below the under secretary is called the assistant secretary. These departments are supported by the Legal Service and the Communications, Risk Management, Internal Audit and Compliance units. In all administrative systems there are various departments and at the head of every department there is a secretary. He issues instructions and certain cases are submitted to him directly. The Government of India announced a Central Staffing Scheme (1957), according to which the senior positions from deputy secretary and onwards are filled through implementation in the following six categories in the central secretariat: (1) Officers of the Central Administrative Pool. The PMO provides all information and other details required by the PM. Their main function is to make policy and the civil servants help the ministers in this field. Viewed from this perspective we can say that the success of the central administration is not satisfactory. An undersecretary holds the charge of a branch. The heads of the executive organ are ministers and the PM is the head of them. They forget that rights and duties are correlative. The functions of a secretary is to assist the minister in the discharge of duties or making a policy. Content Guidelines 2. Posting in the secretariat are governed by the Central Staffing Scheme and the doors are open to all higher civil services. Some officers tend to do a protracted spell of secretariat duty. The Deshmukh Study Team of ARC (1972) recommended the intro­duction of an innovation known as the desk officer system. After his death when Lal Bahadur Shastri became PM the importance of the cabinet began to decline and he began to depend upon a group of civil servants which finally gave birth to cabinet secretariat of Prime Minister. If the minster makes any suggestion or changes the secretariat tries to incorporate them into the draft and gives new shape to it. The top military or administrative officers had secretaries or advisers. To manage such a big department and to ensure its smooth functioning is really a herculean task and this task is to be performed properly and efficiently by the Cabinet Secretary. The post of the joint secretary between the secretary and the deputy secretary existed as an exception but the joint secretary ship is a regular feature in all the departments of the Government of India. After consultation with the state governments it was decided in 1970 to constitute a Central Administrative Pool as a reserve for manning senior administrative posts of the rank of deputy secretary and above in the Central government. By Decree N°098 /273 of October 22 1998, the President of the Republic reorganized the Presidency of the Republic. Naturally, along with the rise of the importance of Plan and Planning Commission the importance of cabinet secretariat has increased and is increasing day by day. The field to draw upon is already small and the lengthening of the tenure of office might result in the contraction of this field. But with the passage of time even this nomenclature has changed. The Secretary is the principal adviser to the minister on matters of policy and administration within his ministry/department. This body always keeps a watch over the functions of all departments and if there is any lapse or negligence the cabinet secretariat immediately takes action. There is a cabinet secretariat and the head or the most important person of the cabinet secretariat is the Cabinet Secretary. Important files go upward in such a way that the deputy secretary may take decisions. In almost all important political and administrative issues the PM is to take decisions and this he does in accordance with the advice given by the PMO. NDO/VNA – The Party Central Committee’s Secretariat on January 5 called on the entire political system and people to tighten and follow COVID-19 prevention and control measures as the pandemic has still seen complicated developments in many countries around the world with the appearance of new and more contagious strains of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The joint secretary of a department/ministry is a key adminis­trative functionary and his imprint on policy and decision-making in government is immense. The secretary is in overall charge or management of the department-or it may be called ministry. From the standpoint of importance both ministers and members of the cabinet secretariat play important role. We thus find that the emergence of cabinet secretariat or central secretariat actually started its journey when Lal Bahadur Shastri was PM, and since then, it has gradually gathered more and more power and importance. The office verifies facts and points out the laws and rules. Two sections constitute the branch which is under the charge of an undersecretary, also known as the branch officer. “Under Shastri, the influence of the cabinet declined and that of the Prime Minister’s secretariat increased, a trend which continued under Mrs. Gandhi. In fact, the officer cannot discharge his duties without a secretary. There are generally two methods in the discharge of duties. The large and frequent interchange of personnel between the Centre and the states has increasingly tended to dry up. It is the duty of the members of the cabinet secretariat or central secretariat to supply materials. The Maxwell Committee (1937) reiterated the same arguments of the Wheeler Committee for the continuance of the tenure system. The senior-most bureaucrat is appointed to this very coveted and most important administrative post. (2) For running an administration rules and procedures are essential and the secretariat performs this job. The cabinet consists of advisers to the Prime Minister and is composed of few ministers. The Fifth Pay Commission pleaded for the strengthening of the system. The bulk of the posts are filled by officers of the Indian Administrative Service, Class I central services and the selection grade of the Central Secretariat Service. In a word, the PM is the chief spokesperson of the government and the only key-figure of the central administrative structure. Then there are officers who are put on a combination of both these duties.” An OSD is appointed normally from among the existing personnel to attend to particular work. There were cabinet ministers and top ICS officers. Much depends on the division of work effected by the secretaries of the department/ministry. Serving the College by delivering effective governance, co-ordination and advice... About the secretariat ... College Notices College Year Cards Organisation Charts The Queen's Tower. The other functions can be performed only by direction of the seniors. But this is a very important function. This system has since been introduced and adopted by almost all the ministries. He says, “In 1977, the Janata government under Morarji Desai as Prime Minister came into power and one of the earliest measures of Morarji Desai was to curb the powers and functions of this formidable body. Read this article to get complete idea about the administration of central government. In other words, the relation between the minister and his secretary is covered with secretness. Naturally, this department is the initiator of all policies or decisions. These officers move to Delhi for a specified period of 3 to 5 years to any union ministry and then revert back to their respective states and services. Since efficiency and experience are the chief criteria of the post of cabinet secretary, it is found that, generally, a civil servant is appointed to this post towards the end of his service life. Copyright 10. In the lower ranks there are section officers, head clerks, upper division clerks, lower division clerks, typists. The size and functions of the secretariat depend upon the size and complexities of adminis­tration. It is said by the experts that theoretically the President, the Prime minister and the cabinet run the administration. But before a final policy is taken a thorough investigation is required. Ministry is a section of administration at the head of which there is a minister. The political change has led to the creation of two levels of government, each responsible for policy and administration. The cabinet, in Indian system, formulates policy. The Wheeler Committee (1936) and Maxwell Committee (1937) discussed the merits and demerits of the tenure system in details. But the proper allocation of resources is heavily flawed. ISO is an independent, non-governmental international organization with a membership of 165 national standards bodies.. The secretary may brief the minister about the adverse consequences of policy alternatives. He, of course, alone does not do the job. Since then the Cabinet Secretary has emerged as the senior-most Civil Servant of the land even though the office has been in existence technically speaking since 1937”. This led to the formation of the Finance Commerce Pool of officers of the Indian Civil Service and other superior services and the Indian Audit and Accounts Service and the Customs Service in 1938. The lowest unit is the section under a section officer and it consists of a number of assistants, clerks, ‘daftaries’, typists and peons. TOS 7. The central secretariat is a collection of a variety of ministries and departments. The organisation of the Secretariat is set out in the Staff Regulations. The secretaries are appointed out of a panel prepared for these posts. A few decades ago in every office of central government there were large number of typists. The report said “Ordinarily there should be no grade of assistant secretary but the posts should in due course be automatically replaced by posts of under secretaries.”. Thus, the level of additional secretary has come to stay in the secretariat enabling him to concentrate on the more important policy matters. Learn more. The Joint Secretary, Deputy Secretary or Director level is called the Middle Level Management. We may note the following usages-Home ministry or Defence ministry or Finance ministry. The commission remarked that efficient secretariat service, depends upon a constant interchange of personnel between the districts and the secretariat, the provinces and the centre . Their supervisory duties in the manual are numbered as: distribution of work among his staff; training, helping and advising the staff; coordination of work in the section, ensuring prompt and efficient disposal or work in the section and adoption of proper methods for progressing of cases; timely submission of arrear statements and other periodical returns; proper maintenance of section diary, file register, assistants’ diary and other necessary registers; ensuring compliance with instructions regarding treatment and safeguarding of secret papers; seeing that other departments are consulted before the issue of orders; preventing the growth of omnibus files; issuing reminders, acknowledgements, etc. The number of OSD, is always more than needed in terms of the nature of work given to them. The questions regarding civil service and administrative reforms are generally dealt with by the PM and in all these issues relevant information is furnished by the PMO. The officers come on tenure and the continually is provided by the office comprising section officers, assistants, upper division clerks. He also wanted to know the important aspects of the cabinet. The failure of the administration can reasonably be traced to the wrong policy and the members of the secretariat cannot deny the responsibility. They are governed by Central Secretariat Service Rules of 1962, which has been issued under the powers of Article 309 of the Constitution of India. Dr. Hadi Soleimanpour . The major part of the burden of all these tasks, it is said, falls upon the cabinet secretariat. In other words, the main duty of a secretary is to assist and, whatever assistance he gives, it is secret. The deputy secretary is an important officer. For example, there are deputy secretary, undersecretary, assistant secretary. The Maxwell Report (1937), recommended its abolition. He assists the minister in the formulation of policies, and has the responsibility of keeping a watch over its execution. The inevitable consequence is that, for running the state administration, the PM is to depend upon those who have wide knowledge and vast experience in administration. (4) Adequate provision of leave reserve has been made. Deputy secretary was not to report to the director but would refer the file direct to the joint secretary. But the actual situation demands that very often he takes decision himself and normally his decision is not challenged because his opinion is regarded by many as wise and practical. (2) Officers borrowed from the state cadres of the all India services and from other Class I services of the states (other than the state civil service) on tenure deputation. (b) Assistants and Upper Division Clerks: Assistants work under section officers. During the Prime Ministership of Rajiv Gandhi the power, status as well as importance of PMO considerably enhanced. Secondly, when the government is convinced that it is an obligation to take action in the interest of the large staff employed. In our parliamentary system the secretariat prepares the answers to the questions and the ministers read them on the floor of the legislature. He issues general or specific instructions about cases to be submitted to him directly. There are several branches of central administration and very important ones are budgeting, expenditure, policy-making of central administration and making drafts for legislation. It is aimed at eliminating dilatoriness procedures in the functioning of the secretariat and equipping it to cope more effectively with the new and increasing demands. Another man becomes minister and he may appoint new members or administrators in his ministry. The interposition of such officers between the secretary and his deputy has always been disliked and almost every committee has recommended either the abolition of these posts or a drastic reduction in their number. The Central Secretariat normally performs the following functions: (1) Assisting the minister in the discharge of his policy making and parliamentary functions. The secretary also seeks the opinion of the deputy secretary and in that case the latter may give his opinion in writing. Let us conclude this part of our analysis by saying that in our cabinet form of government the PM is the most important figure and though there are large number of ministers he is at the top of them. If the minister is defeated in the election his ministry ceases to exist. It is his duty to supply to the minister facts before any policy decision is taken. There is neither honesty nor efficiency in our administrative system. 2. It also provides technical and expert assistance to parliamentary bodies and Members of Parliament to support them in the exercise of their mandates. On return from the secretariat, the civil servants are not welcome to their state and field agencies and are put to ‘sidelines’. We thus find that at the time of Indira Gandhi’s Prime Ministership the Prime Minister’s Office was created. Legal Services Office Freedom of Information That means, the Cabinet Secretary must ensure the smooth functioning of these two aspects of central administration. The functions of the government at present have changed and, not only this these have considerably increased. There are certain service conditions of employees which require details relating to facts from first hand infor­mation by a field officer. But the draft of law is prepared by the secretariat and after that it is sent to the minister for his opinion or approval. We again note that a ministry has a department. However, there was a further shift under Mrs. Gandhi’s leadership away from reliance upon any of the formal channels of authority in the system to dependency upon a narrow clique of personal advisers accountable only to the Prime Minister” (The Politics of India since Independence, This is the source of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). These officers stay in their special posts ‘indefinitely’, while the post is inherently of a temporary nature. To initiate new measures for public administration is another function. When the secretary is heavily burdened with administrative work he is assisted by another important person next to him. He is in the charge of the department. Wheeler’s arguments for tenure system were: (1) The experience will train civil servants to assume responsibilities and cultivate a sound judgement. There is no uniform terminology describing the various segments of administrative structure of the Union government. The procedures prescribed in the Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure (CSMOP), attempt to balance the conflicting considerations of speed, quality, transparency and propriety. But the fact is that the cabinet secretariat did not find any opportunity to discharge its function. A deputy secretary in a department acts on behalf of the secretary. Whatever it may, be there is no doubt about his efficiency and seniority. A typical civil servant makes all kinds of efforts to prolong his stay in Delhi and he tries to become eligible for another deputation. There are difference in department and ministry. Short title and commencement.- But there is more importance of secretary in particular and secretariat in general. It is the duty of the cabinet secretariat to scrutinise all the important aspects of the draft. The Secretariat’s task is to coordinate legislative work and organise plenary sittings and meetings. The two experiences are contra­dictory rather than supplementary. The members of Indian administration perform one job quite honestly and efficiently and this is without doing duty properly how to get or ensure rights. In India also the PM is the most powerful man. We think that it is the ideal procedure and, in India it is very often followed. The under and assistant secretaries constitute this lower level. Under this system, the work of a ministry or department at the lowest level is organised into different functional desks each manned by an officer of appropriate rank, that is under secretary, section officer or assistant, who handles the case himself with the adequate stenographic/clerical assistance. For a wrong or impractical or defective policy both the ministers and the top administrators are to be blamed. The policy, making function of the minister means the involvement of the entire secretariat. The person holding the post of Cabinet Secretary will have to discharge the following functions: (1) The Cabinet Secretary is the chief administrative adviser to the PM Needless to say that when at the time of Lal Bahadur Shastri, the Cabinet secretariat was created this particular function of the head of the Cabinet Secretariat was in mind. It is now time to point out the major loopholes of the central administration.It is a very common notion that the purpose of every administration is to ensure good governance. The section officer ensures that the notes prepared by his subordinates are factually correct. Since 1973, several revisions have been made and it works as under: (1) Index record has been added to the system. The administration is becoming more and more complicated and bulky and because of this reason division becomes inevitable. Whenever any problem regarding administration arises the cabinet secretariat solves it. The secretary is the adminis­trative head of the department and he is directly related with the minister who is m the charge of department. Moreover, the ability of a civil servant is ascertained from his annual performance appraisal and the standardisation has been unworkable because of differing norms of evaluation that prevail in the states and in the services. But in practice he is unequal and most powerful person. If we look at the functioning of the cabinet secretariat, we shall find that actually all or majority of the policies or decisions are initiated by the cabinet secretariat. But the post continues even after the fulfillment of requirement. The discipline has become weak and those who had early deputation are reaping the fruits. The Secretary-General shall head a Secretariat the composition and organisation of which shall be determined by the Bureau. He is very often the only one to utter the last word about India’s stand on both these issues. Viewed from this angle it can be said that there was practically no existence of cabinet secretariat or central secretariat. But it was found that the competence of the cabinet ministers to give advice to the PM was clouded by a number of questions. There is no doubt that the public administration of free India has changed both in nature and dimension. Report a Violation, Difference between Cabinet Secretariat and Prime Minister’s Secretariat. The officers of the Indian Foreign Service hold almost all the secretariat posts in the ministry of external affairs. The specific functions assigned to him are mentioned in the standing orders of 1960. The Secretariat of the SCO is the primary executive body of the organisation. The actual functioning of the Central Commission is defined in its Rules of Procedure. The division of a department or ministry has some practical value or reason. Prohibited Content 3. Posts in the secretariat are limited and aspirants drawn from various all-India and central services are too many. The term secretariat has an interesting root. Since he will be the head of the Cabinet secretariat nobody can cast doubt about his experience, efficiency and other qualities as an expert officer. The purpose of creating a post of OSD is to serve special purpose. Though the public administration is meant for the general public some information and matters are kept secret. TOS 7. The chief aim of British rule was to maintain law and order and exploit the wealth of India and in order to keep them under cover the British raj-introduced secrecy. The cabinet secretariat is the confluence of all the ministries and departments of the central government and, naturally, all the important matters and policies as well as decisions are sent to the cabinet secretariat for scrutiny and final approval. 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