NEW DELHI: The Administrative Reforms Commission, mandated with preparing a blueprint for revamping the public administration system, may recommend curtailing the benefit of reservation in civil services only up to entry level.

The proposal, which seems to have found favour with the Commission, means

Administration Reforms Commission chairman M Veerappa Moily said the panel had been "toying with several ideas on how to reform the civil services, a matter which the PMO is already looking into". "One of the (reforms) could be keeping the reservation formula only up to the entry level in the civil services... after that, merit of the candidate will decide his fate," proposed Mr Moily, insisting that "we want the best of the brains to be in the administration."

Mr Moily said the PMO had sent a draft of the new Civil Services Act to the Commission. Though the panel has prioritised four areas for its first set of reports - namely, effective implement of the Right to Information Act; crisis management; public order; implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme - he said civil services reforms may be given special attention depending on how soon the PMO wanted to finalise the new Civil Services Act.

"The need to revamp the Civil Services Act stems from the fact that civil servants should be able to deliver to the best of their ability," explained the Mr Moily, who chairs the Commission which also has Mr V Ramachandran, Mr A P Mukerjee, Mr A H Kalro, Mr Jayaprakash Narayan as members. Ms Vineeta Rai is acting as member-secretary to the Commission, formed in August 2005 with a tenure of one year.

Stressing introduction in the civil services a system similar to the Army where one is judged after completing 10 years on whether he is fit to continue in the forces or not, Mr Moily also cited the example of China where thousands of civil servants were sacked to ensure the efficiency levels were met in the bureaucratic set-up.

"No one should take entry into civil services as a permanent guarantee of continuing in the job. Inefficient officers will have to be chucked out. Perform or you are sacked should be the mantra," he said but added, "This proposal is right now at a nascent stage and nothing has been finalised."Asked about having a fixed tenure for bureaucrats, he said while the Commission agreed with this view but "we have to ensure that no inefficient officer can take advantage of this policy."

Speaking about the Right to Information Act, on which the Commission has prepared an approach paper, Mr Moily said, "The Act has to enter into every fabric of our society."On the measures suggested by the Commission to keep political pressures off the bureaucrats, the former Karnataka chief minister said that "I agree 100% that there is some political interference and we are working on it."

Among other things, the Commission is taking a relook at the organisational structure of the government of India, ethics in governance, refurbishing of personnel administration, strengthening of financial management systems, strengthening administration at all levels, promoting e-governance, issues of federal polity, crisis management and public order. It hopes to finalise its recommendations on these matters by August 2006.