New Delhi: One Indian Police Service (IPS) and four Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers have been empanelled for the post of Joint Secretary at the Centre. Sindhi Pillai, an IPS officer of 2001 batch of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and UT (AGMUT) cadre, has been empanelled for the Joint Secretary or equivalent at the Centre. The IRS officers, who have been empanelled for the post of Joint Secretary at the Centre, are Meera Srivastava, Chittaranjan Dash, Ekta Vishnoi and Sanjog Kapoor. They are 1999 batch IRS officers.

According to a government notification, empanelment should be considered not as a reflection of the intrinsic merit or otherwise of an officer but the suitability of an officer to occupy senior levels in the Central government. Given the background and experience of an officer, she or he may be highly suited to occupy senior positions in state government.

Likewise, another officer, in view of the background and experience, may be considered more suitable for the Central government posts. There is an expert panel in connection with the empanelment at the level of Joint Secretary, which examines the ACRs, year-wise in detail, for each batch and gives their own assessment of the grading of officers for each year, which is taken in to account by the Civil Services Board (CSB) for making recommendations. /BI/