Chennai, PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss on Sunday urged the Tamil Nadu government to revoke its decision to appoint Indian Forest Service officers as project directors for the District Rural Development Agency.
In a statement, Anbumani condemned the recent government order appointing IFS officers to lead District Rural Development Agency in Theni and Kanyakumari districts, warning that deploying officials with no prior exposure to rural governance would severely impair essential public services in rural areas. Appointing them to these roles will inevitably degrade the department’s performance and jeopardise essential services for rural residents”. Calling on the state government to prioritise rural welfare and safeguard the morale of departmental employees, he demanded that all DRDA project director posts be exclusively filled by promoting qualified rural development department officials.
Noting that DRDA project directors and Tamil Nadu state rural livelihood mission directors serve as district-level heads for these initiatives, the former Union Minister said, “IFS officers have no relevant background or operational experience in handling rural administration. “Officers recruited as junior assistants or assistants through the TNPSC advance over decades to become Deputy Block Development Officers , Block Development Officers , and Assistant Directors”, he said, adding “similarly, group-1 officers directly recruited as assistant directors are promoted to joint directors-making them fully qualified to serve as DRDA project directors with deep ground-level experience.
