IAS Officer Smita Sabharwal Slammed For Questioning Disability Quota In Civil Services: 'Pathetic View'

In a post on X, Smita Sabharwal said the nature of IAS is groundwork with long taxing hours, adding that dealing with people's grievances 'requires physical fitness'.

A senior IAS officer has triggered a row by questioning the need for the disability quota to recruit the specially-abled in the civil services. Smita Sabharwal's comments come amid the controversy surrounding Puja Khedkar, who is accused, among other things, of making a fraudulent claim to avail of the disaility quota for the civil services exam. 

In a post on X, Smita Sabharwal, member-secretary of the Telangana Finance Commission, said the nature of IAS is groundwork with long taxing hours, adding that dealing with people's grievances "requires physical fitness". 

"With all due respect to the Differently Abled. Does an Airline hire a pilot with disability? Or would you trust a surgeon with a disability. The nature of the #AIS ( IAS/IPS/IFoS) is field-work, long taxing hours, listening first hand to people's grievances-which requires physical fitness. Why does this premier service need this Quota in the first place!" she wrote.

Officer Slammed

The IAS officer's post sparked a strong response, with many criticising her views as based on "flawed logic" and ignorance. 

Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi took to X and described Sabharwal's comments as "pathetic and exclusionary".

"I haven't seen bureaucrats criticising the misuse of the quota such as EWS/Non-creamy layer or Disabilities and getting into the system but rather about doing away with a reservation that promotes diversity and inclusion. I don't know how you telling about the number of years in service is relevant to your point. Thanks anyway," Chaturvedi said in another post.

Arvind Gupta, a trustee for the nonprofit National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), said there was a need to "educate ourselves rather than excluding 20 crore Indians from contributing to a better India".

"As a trustee of @ncpedp_india, we see thousands of innovative outcomes by people with disabilities, which is inspirational in many ways. NCPEDP was instrumental in getting disabled people in UPSC & we see them struggling daily due to lack of awareness. If given a universal ecosystem, persons with disabilities can contribute to the mainstream society on an equal basis," he added in a post on X.

Puja Khedkar, a 2023-batch probationary IAS officer, has been in the eye of the storm since Pune collector Suhas Diwase wrote to Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sujata Saunik last month, pointing out her ineligibility for certain perks demanded by her.

This led to allegations that she had cleared the UPSC civil services selection based on fraudulent documents. Her two-year training has now been suspended, and her selection is under investigation by a panel formed by the Centre. The UPSC has filed a police case against her, and issued a showcause notice to her regarding the cancellation of her selection.