There is lot of materials now available in internet
about different Engineering Services allotted through UPSC. This is made
possible by Seniors and colleagues who took pain in writing about their opinion
about the services without fear of backlash or adverse effects. I personally
thank them for giving their frank opinions which definitely gave a big picture
to all aspirants and future IES officers.
In every service there is lot of
positives and negatives. My good friend once told me a story of his professor.
The professor took a note book and draws a tiny dot in earlier white,
unblemished page. He tears the paper and asks what is it? It a dot, came the
reply. Professor explains when you are focussing on dot, you are forgetting the
paper on which it exists.
I don’t wish to explain advantages
and disadvantages of various services. It’s out there already. I just want to
reduce the anxiety experienced by many aspirants who are sometimes are only
seeing the dot and missing the white paper. During my time, very few wrote
about the different Engineering services. These officers made it a point to
cite pros and cons of department. I am thankful to them. They made filling DAF
easier. However of late, there is increasing bad lighting of all Engineering
services by young officers. I wish to address this issue.
There is two worry issues of
Engineering services that aspirants find-
1.
The comparisons of departments in the Engineering service (like IRSE, CES, CES
(Roads) etc)
2.
The comparison of IES with IAS.
Dynamic nature of
Engineering Services-
Engineering
is one of the most dynamic services. It easy to quantify the achievements of Engineering
services unlike Scientific services or Social services or Economic services.
This dynamic nature of service adds variability to
the equation. For example, in civil engineering, there was great demand for
surveyors and engineers who could manage them. This was the era of Great
trigonometric survey (GTS). Those people did a great job with very high
accuracy which is achieved with modern instruments today. Now it is a saturated
department in State as well as Central. Similar was water resource department.
There were great engineers who built irrigation canals, sanitary pipelines,
dams etc. For now, its importance has reduced relatively. CPWD was great
traditional department which is now facing completion from other construction
PSUs. They were great engineers who built and designed majestic Buildings. Apart
from the Public Works it was required to carry out the construction works of
Archaeological, Posts and Telegraphs and Indian National Airways and other such
Organisations as ‘Depot Works’. You will still find buildings with name of
executive engineer on these buildings. However, many of the earlier functions
have been bifurcated.
Now a day focus is on infrastructure of India. The
department of railways and roads are on rise with mega projects. Like all other
departments, this may also face the nature’s slump.
This dynamic nature of engineering department is
true for private and government departments. When a young engineer gets
appointment to Engineering service, this important thing should be in mind. In
services, he serves for 30-35 years. This is a very long time and you will
never know what is in store for you. Some department relevant now may become
redundant and some redundant one may become most relevant. Unfortunately, there
is little that can be done in this matter. A brief history of MoRTH (Ministry
of Road transport and highways) from wiki will shed light on this-
Changes made over years (Source: Wikipedia)
· 1942 : The Department of War Transport was formed in July, by the
bifurcation of the then Department Of Communications into two Departments:
(i)
Department of Posts
(ii) Department of War Transport.
· 1957: Department of War Transport was renamed as Ministry of
Transport & Communications and Department of transport was placed under it.
· 1966: Department of Transport, Shipping & Tourism was placed
under Ministry of Transport and Aviation.
·
1967: the Ministry of Transport and Aviation was bifurcated into
Ministry of Shipping and Transport and the Ministry of Tourism and Civil
Aviation.
·
1985: Ministry of Transport and Shipping became the Department of
Surface Transport under the Ministry of Transport.
·
1986: the Department of Surface Transport under Ministry of Transport
was renamed as Ministry of Surface Transport .
· 1999: Ministry of Surface Transport was subsequently re-organized
into departments, namely Department of Shipping and Department of Road
Transport and Highways.
· 2000: the Ministry of Surface Transport was bifurcated into two
Ministries namely Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Ministry of
Shipping.
·
2004: Ministry of Shipping and Ministry of Road Transport has again
been merged and renamed as Ministry of Shipping and Road Transport and Highways
As you can see, all services under Engineering
services are evolving. The choice of engineering service is important during
filling of DAF and must be cautiously done. After allocation and then being sad
over the decision is not good. Thinking too much about future in initial years
will take focus away from work that is required to be done. Like all government
services, Engineering services is a way to serve
public. We should be grateful that an opportunity to serve is given and
make most of it.
So what is the solution
if you don’t get your desired department and expected facilities? The fact that all the material in internet
about engineering services is written by young officers like me who may not
have fully explored the department should be a relief. Each department
however worse it may be comes with certain unique positive attributes. For
example, IRSE have lot of authority, CPWD have diverse work, CES (Roads) have
easier life style and lot of relevance now, IDSE/MES/BRO/ IOFS for those who
love military life, SIS/IIS for those who like being different, CWES for those
who have yearn for nations water resources. Focussing on positive attributes
and keeping in mind that whatever you do, it will affect the country directly
or indirectly will keep away any self doubts.
The other solution
to the above problem is to have low or no expectations about facilities. Don’t
have any expectation that department will give any benefit at all. No car, no
bungalow, no servants. Think that even tea you drink have to paid by you.
Imagining this and coming to service, you will focus more on your duty and
enjoy bonus benefits specific to different services.
There are tons of deputation prospects available to
officers which may not be foreseen in near future. A redundant department will
allow more of such deputations. In government service, there is interesting
work, there is frustrating work but no work done is unimportant. Even drafting
a letter or collecting data over phone for the policy makers to make decision
is important even though this may not be ideal work you might be seeking.
Comparing other departments work and brooding over is nothing but proverbial
grass is green on other side.
The Comparison of IES with IAS- This is heart ache that most IES officers
face in. They see young officer becoming a boss over them. This is true for
even other civil services like IRS and IPS. Let me quote the material of 7th
CPC report which one of my colleague showed to me and is reproduced below-
Average year of promotional prospects for even for Civil
services other IAS/IFS is far higher than the engineering service. For those
who don’t know what is SAG and HAG, it is Joint secretary/Chief engineer level
and HAG is Additional secretary/Additional director general level. The above
table will tell that most of civil service have better promotional prospects
than engineering service. Defence service and engineering service are a bit slow
moving in promotional prospects.
What is definitely not told that there is something called cadre review which reviews these promotion prospects and improves them. The above table won’t even be recognizable in 20 years or so. Some service will fare better and some will get worse. There is nothing that can be done about it in initial years. A person genuinely interested in engineering should let his interest prevail rather than these figures above. This is because you will not know what is in store for you and you may fare better than you think now.
The purpose of writing this post is
because of general observation that new officers who are genuinely interested
in engineering services, being bothered by these departmental shortcomings and
slow moving promotional prospects. They make half hearted efforts in switching
over to other services whose working field they are not even interested. This
is a great tragedy and loss to country. Even before coming to Engineering
services, they are bogged down by despair. They true performance is affected as
they are pulled back by these shackles. I hope this post will give the
confidence to future aspirants.
They are told about shortcomings of department but
not about the reforms and changes that will improve the situation. They are not
told about the dynamic nature of engineering departments. They are not told
that glass is half full. This service like other services has its own charm and
place in government mechanism. Don’t let others say otherwise.
P.S.
thank you Ganesh for the title of this post. As always, this is my personal view and will not be used for any legal
or other matter. I shall not be liable for any damages arising out of use of
the material.
