IAS association comes back to life, plans convention

After a gap of six years, the UP IAS Association is going to organise its three-day Senior Administrative Officers Conference, commonly called "IAS Week" or "Service Week", from January 11 to 13 next year. A delegation of IAS officers met Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday and invited him to attend the event. The Chief Minister accepted the invitation.

The last annual meeting of the UP IAS Association was held in December 2006 when Mulayam Singh Yadav was the chief minister. The association remained defunct during Mayawati's rule and failed to organise the annual event even once.

The talks about resurrection of the association had started with the change of the guards in Lucknow in March this year. But the officers were waiting for the new government to settle as bulk transfers are ordered in the initial months of the new government.

To revive the association, its executive committee members held a meeting on Wednesday where they decided to elect Agriculture Production Commissioner Alok Ranjan as the new president of the body. Partha Sarthi Sensharma was elected as secretary, Kaushal Raj Sharma as joint secretary and Bhuvnesh Kumar as treasurer.

It is a tradition that the Chief Minister addresses the officers during the inaugural session of the conference and also hosts lunch for the association members. Association members will also seek consent from Governor B L Joshi and invite him to attend the event.

"We will meet the Governor soon," said Alok Ranjan.

During the service week, the annual general meeting of the association will be also held where the executive members may give formal approval to continue Alok Ranjan as the president. Alok Ranjan, a 1978 batch IAS officer, is among the seniormost officers in the state after Revenue Board Chairman Jagan Mathews and Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani. Mathews, however, declined to take responsibility of association president citing personal reasons. Jawed Usmani, on the other hand, will not be given the charge as he is the administrative head of the state, being Chief Secretary.

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