| J&K facing shortage of IAS, IPS, IFS officers | | | Bashir Assad
Early Times Report
Srinagar, May 28: Shortage of IAS, IPS and IFS officers is adding to the woes of J&K government which is already struggling with acute financial crisis.
Against the allotted strength of 137 IAS officers, of which 72 are direct recruits and the rest are promotees from the state civil service, 19 officers are on Central deputation and 15 are due to retire by the end of this year. The scarcity has resulted in babus sharing additional responsibilities.
Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has reportedly raised the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought urgent repatriation of babus on deputation to the state to end the administrative crisis.
According to the last cadre review carried out in 2009, the sanctioned cadre strength of IAS in the state is 137 with 75 regular recruits. However, 46 of these posts are lying vacant.
The situation gets complicated with 19 of these officers being on deputation. This leaves fewer officers to shoulder the burden of different government departments.
Similarly, out of the sanctioned strength of 147 IPS officers, J&K only has 98 IPS officers including 63 regular recruits. However, 19 of the 63 regular recruits are on government of India deputation, leaving an effective strength of IPS in the state at 79.
Similarly, in the IFS, of the 53 regular recruits, 13 officers are on deputation, officials sources told Early Times.
Furthermore, the insider-outsider ratio is highly skewed in favour of the outsiders.
Sources said that of the 63 direct recruit IAS officers in J&K, only five people from the state have made it to IAS as direct recruits in around five decades from 1960 to 2009 and only two made it to IAS in around two decades from 1990 to 2009.
In 2013, when eight candidates from J&K made it to IAS and IPS, the state government wrote to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that these candidates be allotted home cadre in relaxation of the policy. Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had personally taken up the matter with Singh.
Though three senior IAS officers were repatriated by the central government on the request of the Chief Minister, there are still 19 IAS officers on deputation to the central government. |
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