It was Sardar Patel’s idea to constitute the All-India Services and make the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) as a successor to the Indian Civil Service. An efficient and responsive civil service would go a long way in implementing the dreams and hopes of independent India.
“The key to efficient administration”, Patel said, “is the sense of security in the service at the top and non-interference by Congressmen or with the people connected either with the Congressmen or with the Ministers in the administration.
The ministers should not give orders to any subordinate officer and they must deal with them through their superiors”.
Findings of Research Studies and Recommendations of Reform Commission
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Studies on Indian bureaucracy carried out by two eminent scholars – The Government and Politics of India by W.H. Morris Jones (1968) – which cover the first two decades after independence, provide some insights into the working of the All-India Services.
They concluded that Indian bureaucracy, who during the British rule had remained almost unchecked by any political or other countervailing forces, adapted itself well to Parliamentary democracy.
This, according to them, happened mainly because the members of the All-India Services displayed a quick understanding of the new political system and the art of handling it, combined with a zeal for development work.
The stable, effective and democratic government in India during this period rested to a large extent on this institutional inheritance.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
In search for efficiency and economy in public administration, the administration has to become result-oriented and productive and observe norms of properly handling scarce resources.