Directorate Common Cadre: Great News for State Govt Employees! Decision to Introduce Common Cadre Increases Promotion Opportunities

Directorate Common Cadre: The State Cabinet has brought excellent news for West Bengal government employees, specifically those working in various directorates under different departments. Breaking a long-standing stagnation, the Cabinet gave its final approval to the proposal for creating a ‘Directorate Common Cadre’ on Wednesday. This landmark decision by the state government has significantly boosted the promotion opportunities for thousands of employees.

What is the Directorate Common Cadre?

According to administrative sources, there are currently 106 directorates in the state, employing over 11,000 officers and staff members. Until now, the prevailing rule dictated that an employee would essentially remain confined to the directorate where they initially joined. Consequently, promotion opportunities were extremely limited.

In many cases, it was observed that employees would reach their retirement age after receiving barely one promotion throughout their long service tenure. However, this scenario is set to change drastically. Under the state government’s new decision:

• Employees of all directorates will be brought under the Personnel and Administrative Reforms (P&AR) Department to create a ‘Common Cadre’.
• This will open the doors for transfers from one directorate to another.
• With expanded work opportunities across various departments, the scope for promotion will naturally increase manifold compared to before.

Officials believe this is a highly positive step for the career growth of employees and will also bring speed to administrative work.

Long-standing Demands and High-Power Committee

The issues regarding stagnation in promotion and related demands of the employees had been persisting for a long time. To examine these demands seriously, a High-Power Committee was formed by Nabanna. Accepting the recommendations and proposals of that committee, the Cabinet sealed the decision to create this Common Cadre.

Dr. Manas Bhunia, Chairman of the West Bengal State Government Employees Federation, expressed satisfaction with this decision. He stated that since 2011, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has taken several significant steps keeping the employees’ welfare in mind, and this is one of them. Pratap Nayak, the convener of the Federation, also thanked the Chief Minister for resolving the long-standing problems of the employees.

Recruitment of Sports Persons and Other Decisions

Apart from employee promotions, several other important decisions were taken in the Cabinet meeting on this day.

• Direct Recruitment of Sports Persons: To facilitate the direct recruitment of meritorious and medal-winning sports persons into government jobs, the ‘West Bengal Services (Appointment of Sports Persons under Special Dispensation) Rules, 2025’ has been approved. They can now be directly appointed to posts like Section Officer, UDA, LDA, and Group-D without altering the existing structure of posts under the P&AR Department.
• Expansion of New Town: The Cabinet also approved the proposal to include four mouzas of two blocks in Bhangar, South 24 Parganas, into the New Town Kolkata Planning Area.

These decisions by the state government are expected to be helpful in developing administrative infrastructure and boosting employee morale.