ACR’s of Maharashtra IAS officers destroyed in Mantrala fire
24 Jan, 2013The state government of Maharashtra has informed to a RTI applicant that the annual appraisal reports of all the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers in Maharashtra have been lost in the Mantralaya fire. The PIO of General Administration Department (GAD) of Maharashtra has informed that office number 10 had all the original annual confidential reports of officers from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) which was gutted in the fire which occurred on 21st June last year. Currently, 280 IAS officers are working in Maharashtra, out of which the the performance appraisal for 259 officers has been initiated while 27 IAS officers are working on a deputation out of the state.
Such a poor upkeep of the ACRs (now called APAR) has raised serious questions about the manner in which the appraisal of the officers would be done. It is also a lesson for the other state governments to keep the documents properly to avoid a similar incident from occuring.
The former Information Commissioner at the Central Information Commission (CIC) Mr. Shailesh Gandhi, had filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the the General Administration Department (GAD) of Maharashtra.
The chief Minister of Maharashtra Mr. Prithviraj Chavan had told reporters that 2.25 lakh files had been digitalised and 3.18 crore papers had been scanned prior to the fire incident.