Thousands of officers of the Central Secretariat Service 'CSS', which is called the 'backbone' of the Central Government, are waiting for the fourth cadre review. In October last year, a committee was constituted for the fourth cadre review of CSS. CSS Forum (Association of Central Secretariat Service Officers) had given its suggestions to the committee in January itself. Despite this, cadre review has not been done yet. As a result, promotion of officers at various levels in CSS is being delayed. It is taking 13 years for an Under Secretary to reach the post of Deputy Secretary. If cadre review is not done now, many under secretaries will retire without becoming directors. CSS Forum demands that cadre review be done immediately. It is possible that after this the central government will be busy in elections.

Ashutosh Mishra, General Secretary, CSS Forum, said that in October last year, a committee was constituted for the fourth cadre review of CSS. In this, the Establishment Officer and Additional Secretary of DoPT were made the chairman of the committee. Joint Secretary 'CS' of DoPT and Joint Secretary 'Purse' of Department of Expenditure, members of this committee and Deputy Secretary 'CS1' of DoPT were made member secretaries. After this the committee had sought suggestions from the CSS Forum. The officials of the forum had submitted their report to the committee in January itself. Not only this, the Forum has also urged the DoPT Minister and other top officials to conduct cadre review from time to time. Even after all this the committee report did not come. Around 12000 CSS officers, who have been working shoulder to shoulder with the government on every front, are now worried about their future.

At present, there are about 1200 Under Secretaries who fulfill all the qualifications to become Deputy Secretaries. Such a large number of these officers have been waiting for promotion for a long time. Similarly, there are 100 deputy secretaries who have crossed all the stages of becoming directors. The special thing is that all these officers have been working on gazetted posts since 1997. According to DoPT rules, he should have become a director only after 18 years of service, but even after 26 years of service, he has still not been able to get that post. Many such officers have retired. The situation is similar on other posts also. This year, the 'ASO' was promoted to Section Officer after a prolonged agitation by the CSS Forum. Following the announcement by DoPT Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh in June, around 1600 'ASOs' of CSS were given adhoc promotion to Section Officer i.e. 'SO'. CSS Forum had to appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on this issue. Hundreds of CSS officers had staged massive protests inside and outside North Block.