State Reorganization

Introduction

State Reorganization Acts were enacted in November 2000 for the purpose of reorganization of the then existing States of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. As a result, UP was bifurcated into UP & Uttarakhand, MP became MP & Chhattisgarh and Bihar was reorganized into Bihar and Jharkhand. As per provisions of these three Acts, Central Government is vested with the authority for allocating services of personnel between the successor States in connection with the State Re-organisation. Other than the employees of All India Services, State Government employees of State Cadre, are allocated between the successor States by the State Re-organisation (SR) Division in the Department of Personnel & Training.
At present allocation of State Government employees between the successor States of Uttar Pradesh / Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh/ Chhattisgarh and Bihar/Jharkhand, is in progress.

Work Allocation

The State Reorganisation (SR) Division in the Department of Personnel & Training is entrusted with the responsibility of allocation of the State Government employees of State cadre, who have all state transfer liability, other than All India Services, between the successor states in accordance with State Reorganisation Scheme. Employees serving in villages, tehsil, districts, divisions and regions - who are normally transferred within such areas and part of such territorial cadres and employees appointed for Projects or Undertakings, etc. are not covered by the scheme of State Reorganisation. Allocation of All India services between the successor States are done by their cadre controlling authorities i.e M/O of personnel(AIS Division) for Indian Administrative Service (IAS), M/O Home Affairs for Indian Police service (IPS) and M/O Environment and Forests for Indian Forest Service (IFS). They therefore, do not come under the SR Division..

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Background

The States of India were originally formed as a result of historical accidents and circumstances. After independence there has been a growing demand for reorganisation of the States on more rational basis, in the context of not only from financial, economic and administrative management of independent India but also due to the growing importance of regional languages. For the first time, the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) was constituted in 1953 to go into this problem and to recommend the principles and broad guidelines on which the States can be reorganised. The Commission submitted its report in September, 1955. To give effect to the scheme of reorganisation which emerged from the consideration of the proposals contained in the Report, the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, was enacted by the Parliament under Article 4 of the Constitution of India. The new States formed as a result of the reorganisation of States in 1956 are Andhra Pradesh, Bombay Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Madras, Mysore, Punjab and Rajasthan. Thereafter the Parliament had also enacted various Reorganisation Acts from time to time i.e the Bombay Reorganisation Act in 1960; The Punjab Reorganisation Act in 1966; the State of Himachal Pradesh Reorganisation Act in 1970 and North-Eastern States reorganisation Act in 1971. The latest in this category are the Reorganisation Acts of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar which were enacted by the Parliament in November, 2000.

Basis of Allocation

The strength of Employees / vacancies existed as on the Appointed Day is the base for allocation of posts between the successor States. The appointed day for Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar are as under:-

Criteria of Allocation

The broad principle of allocation of State cadre employees which inter alia include allocation first by option, followed by domicile (Home District) and lastly by inclusion of junior most personnel in the reverse order of seniority. If the number of posts allocated to a successor States are more than the total number of optees and domicile (Home District), in order to fill up the balance posts, the employees lower down in the seniority position in the cadre are considered for allocation even against their options. Option once exercised by the employees is not reversible. Keeping in view the resentment expressed by the employees who were allocated on domicile and juniority basis against their willingness, several exceptions were made to the guidelines to facilitate certain class of employees to be allocated to the States of their option.

* family include spouse, dependent children and dependent parents.

Process of Allocation

1. Framing of guidelines on Reorganization

   The Reorganization Acts only provide for the brief outlines and fundamental principles of reorganization. It was therefore necessary to work out the modalities and frame the detailed guidelines to carry out the reorganization process. Accordingly, a meeting was convened on 06.09.2000 under the chairmanship of the then Secretary (Personnel), Govt. of India, in which the Chief Secretaries of the Reorganized States participated. As per decisions taken in the meeting, basic guidelines to regulate the process of reorganization were issued under D.O. letter dt. 13.09.2000 in order to carry out provisional allocation of employees, till they are finally allocated.

2. Constitution of State Advisory Committee

   The Reorganization Acts provide for setting up of advisory committee(s) to assist the Central Govt. in the reorganization process. Subsequent to issue of the basic guidelines, the Central Govt. decided to constitute State Advisory Committees to assist it in the reorganization process. It laid down the manner in which the committee was to be constituted and fixed the time frame for it to follow in the D.O. letter dt. 22.12.2000. State Advisory Committees (SAC) were constituted with a senior retired civil servant of the rank of Chief Secretary or equivalent as Chairman with Chief Secretaries of the successor States as Members to assist the Central Government to discharge its functions with regard to allocation of State Government employees, as provided in the Reorganisation Act. However, it was left to the State Advisory Committees to formulate the detailed and State-specific guidelines for allocation of employees between the successor States.

3. Ratio of allocation of posts

   The posts of the un-divided State are allocated between the successor States in a specific ratio arrived by the State Advisory Committee, keeping in view the posts relatable to the area of the successor State (field posts) and also a fixed percentage of Hqrs. Posts. The posts located in the geographical area go to the successor States, whereas the posts of the headquarter are distributed in the ratio of the districts.

4. Allocation of Personnel

   Personnel and vacancies are allocated between the successor States in accordance with the ratio finalised by the State Advisory Committee by applying relevant provisions as existed on the appointed day.

5. Finalisation of TFAL & RFAL

   Based on the information provided by the concerned Administrative Departments, the State Advisory Committee issues Tentative Final Allocation List (TFAL) enlisting employees proposed for allocation on option, domicile and juniority basis, inviting objections from the employees. The objections received against TFAL within one month period are considered by the State Advisory Committee as per guidelines. The Committee recommends the Revised Final Allocation List (RFAL) to the Central Government for consideration.

6. Final Allocation

   Based on the recommendations of the State Advisory Committee and after ensuring that the recommendations are as per the Guidelines on Reorganization, the Central Government issues final allocation of personnel between the successor States.

Status of Allocation Process In Uttar Pradesh / Uttrakhand, Mdhya Pradesh / Chattisgarh, Bihar / Jharkhand

It may not always be possible to allocate the employees based on their options. This happens when there are more optees than posts available in a successor state. When less optees are available, employees are allocated to the successor States based on their ‘domicile against the rest of the posts. If vacancies still remained, employees are allocated on ‘juniority’ category in the reverse order of seniority. Allocation on juniority basis and to some extent on the basis of domicile, created resentment amongst such employees, as they were forced to join a State against their willingness. This led to the filing of large number of Court cases in various High Courts. The Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in Civil Appeal No.3307 of 2007 filed by Shri Indradeo Paswan Vs Union Government of India has up-held the principal laid down by the Hon'ble High Court of Bihar in the case of Shri Prakash Chandra Sinha V/s Union of India and Others (2003(4) J.C.R. 165) which inter alia states that unless the court is compelled to interfere on the basis of a clear illegality or wednesbury unreasonableness, the court should leave the allocation of personnel in various services as it was and that acceptance of individual grievances, unless clear cases are made out, would make allocation a never ending process and that would not be in the interests of the reorganized States or of the employees. At present the allocation process in Uttar Pradesh has almost come to an end except for a few small departments and some deferred cases. An Advisory Committee under the chairmanship of the Joint Secretary in charge of SR Divn. is in existence to complete the residual allocation matters.
Brief status of allocation in Madhya Pradesh / Chhattisgarh, Bihar / Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh / Uttarakhand are as under:

Madhya Pradesh / Chhattisgarh

The allocation work was completed in 2004 by issuing final allocation orders for more than 1,60,000 employees of the erstwhile State of Madhya Pradesh. To redress the grievances of 1,867 petitioners, a Committee was constituted in 2005 and its recommendations were implemented in 2006.

In compliance with the directions of the Hon’ble High Court of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur in the case filed by Shri B. R. Godbole and 89 other associated writ petitions, a Committee was set up in 2007 under the Chairmanship of the Jointn Secretary, SR Division, to look into the representations of individual employees dissatisfied with their allocation.

Twenty-six meetings of the Committee have been held and the recommendations have been implemented. Meetings continue to address grievances related to court orders, SC/ST, physically handicapped, women employees, spouse, and medical hardship cases.

Uttar Pradesh / Uttarakhand

A total of 10,98,000 personnel were to be allocated between the successor States of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The SAC issued allocation orders only for personnel allocated to Uttarakhand, numbering approximately 1,40,000.

Out of these, 40,000 employees belonging to the Hill Sub Cadre were allocated to Uttarakhand by a single order dated 11.09.2001, since the hill districts went to Uttarakhand. The rest were deemed allocated to Uttar Pradesh. The SAC's task was to allocate 1,00,000 employees to Uttarakhand.

The State Advisory Committee was set up in January 2001 with Shri G. N. Mehra, IAS (Retd.) (UP-1955) as Chairman. The Committee held 80 meetings until its discontinuation on 01.07.2010. Shri S.A.T. Rizvi, IAS (Retd.) (UP-1965) was the last chairman.

Final allocation orders have been issued for 105 Departments / Sub-Departments. Pending cases for small Departments / Sub-Departments are handled by the existing Advisory Committee headed by Joint Secretary (SR). A Committee under Dr. S.K. Sarkar was constituted to consider representations, continuing along with the new SAC (Dec 2007). After Dr. Sarkar became unavailable, another Committee was formed in Dec 2009 under Joint Secretary (SR Division) and continues to function today.

Bihar / Jharkhand

About 1,08,000 employees were to be bifurcated between Bihar and Jharkhand. Allocation orders for approximately 1,07,000 employees have been issued. Only a few disputed cases are pending.

After the term of the then Chairman of the State Advisory Committee ended on 30.06.2008, a Committee under the Chairmanship of Joint Secretary, SR Division, DoPT was constituted by the Central Government to consider pending/deferred issues and grievances.

The Committee meets regularly to look into grievances concerning SC/ST, physically handicapped, women employees, spouse, and medical hardship cases.