New Delhi: A senior bureaucrat's comment questioning the necessity of quotas for specially-abled individuals in civil services has sparked controversy. IAS Smita Sabharwal, Member-Secretary of the Telangana Finance Commission, raised doubts about the relevance of a disability quota in allied services.


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After facing outrage for her post on her social media X, she explained that her sole question was why the quota was not implemented in the IPS/IFoS and certain Defence sectors. 


"See a lot of outrage on my timeline. I suppose addressing the elephant in the room gets you that reaction.  Would request the Rights Activists to also examine why this quota has still not been implemented in the IPS/ IFoS and certain sectors like defence.  My limited point is that the IAS is no different," the post read.  


 



 



In her earlier post, the IAS officer raised a question on disability quota in civil servide and said, "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," she added. 


The outrage sparked after Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi responded to Sabharwal's tweet and termed it a "pathetic". While in response Smita said, "if bureaucrats do not speak on pertinent issues of governance, then who will ? My thoughts and concern, stem from a career of 24 odd years… no limited experience."