Political activist Manoj Pal has raised allegations over the alleged deployment of government staff for household work at the official residences of judges, IAS officers and IPS officers in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, bringing into focus questions around the use of public manpower and expenditure.
In a public video statement, Pal claimed that multiple government personnel are assigned to individual official residences and alleged that some of them are engaged in domestic duties such as food preparation, childcare, cleaning and garden maintenance. He further claimed that similar arrangements exist at the residences of several senior officials posted in the islands.
Pal sought to present the issue as a matter of scale. According to him, if roughly 100 such officials are considered and each residence has around 12 personnel attached to it, the number of staff involved could be close to 1,200. He did not, however, provide any official records, government orders or documentary material to support this estimate.
He also linked the alleged deployment to public expenditure. In his statement, Pal questioned whether taxpayer money is being used to support staffing at official residences and suggested that the cumulative salary burden, if calculated across a large number of personnel, would be substantial. No salary documents, budget papers or departmental records were cited by him in support of this claim.
The issue also touches on the broader framework of service conduct applicable to All India Service officers. The All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968 require members of the service to maintain integrity, devotion to duty and conduct befitting their office. The rules also prohibit the employment of children below the age of 14 years. However, the conduct rules do not explicitly list domestic servants as a formal entitlement.
At the same time, in practice, some senior field postings have historically been associated with support staff attached to official residences for security, protocol, maintenance and related functions. Whether any such deployment crosses the line into improper personal domestic use would depend on the specific facts of each case, including the source of the staff, the work assigned to them and the administrative basis for such deployment.
In his remarks, Pal also broadened the criticism beyond staffing patterns. He alleged that the islands’ administrative structure remains heavily dominated by officials from outside the region and described the system as resembling a continuation of colonial-era governance. He further claimed that such arrangements affect institutional functioning and questioned why these alleged practices have not faced wider legal challenge.
Pal referred to the possibility of petitions being filed in court, but did not cite any pending case, official complaint or judicial proceeding directly connected to the allegations made in the video.
The claims have been made in a public statement and could not be independently verified by The Wave Andaman. No supporting documents were presented along with the allegations. A response from the Andaman and Nicobar administration or from the officials referred to in the statement was not available at the time of publication.
Given the seriousness of the allegations, any determination on whether public manpower has been used beyond permissible administrative norms would require documentary evidence, official clarification and, if necessary, legal scrutiny.
