| State faces shortage of IAS, IPS officers, working takes a hit | | |
Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Apr 10: The shortage of top level officers in civil administration and police has for forced the state government to raise the issue with the Centre for amendment in service rules.
Sources within the government told early times that there is a severe shortage of IAS officers in the state. "The state is facing a severe shortage of IAS officers. As of now, the fixed strength of IAS officials in the state is 137 against availability of 84 officers. Out of in position 84 officers, 11, including Braj Raj Sharma, Suresh Kumar, P K Tripathi, Sudhanshu Panday, Atal Dulloo, Shantmanu, Bipul Pathak, Ashok Kumar Parmar, Manoj Kumar Dwiwedi, Mandeep Kaur and Yasha Mudgal are serving in key departments of Modi Government," wishing anonymity, one of the top officials of the government told early times.
Sources said that in Indian Police Service (IPS), the state is facing shortage of 90 IPS officers against the total strength of 147. Currently, 84 IPS officers are holding the State Cadre, 24 are on Central Deputation, which shrinks the number of IPS officers posted in the state to 60, officials said.
For the last six years, the official said that the state government has not sent any proposal to the Union Public Service Commission to fill the vacant IPS posts because of several litigations against the seniority list of KPS officers due to caderisation of KPS into IPS.
In June last year, the PDP-BJP coalition approved the caderisation of KPS after which many KPS officers started getting the grade pay of the IPS officers.
The government in May last year had asked the Chief Secretary of the State B B Vyas to constitute a committee for resolution of the litigations of KPS officers for induction into IPS.
Meanwhile sources told early times that in view shortage of bureaucrats, government was considering to raise the issue with the Centre for amendment in service rules of IAS officers in the state. "Government is considering to make amendment in service rules of IAS officers. Presently, an IAS officer is posted as secretary only if he has 13 years of service. But government is considering to appoint an IAS officer as secretary of 2009 batch even if he or she has nine years of services," an official of the General Administration Department, said.
"If the IAS officers after 2006 batch are posted as secretaries then there would be no shortage of bureaucrats," the official said.
The state government has been repeatedly asking the centre to shift the J&K cadre IAS officers to the state for "streamlining" the operations of administration as shortage of officers has been hitting working in different departments. "The J&K government has sought return of all IAS officers of JK cadre from the centre, but the central government has so far given a cold response," the GAD said.
Union Minister of State In-charge DoPT, Dr Jitendra Singh recently said that Centre was trying to persuade the cadre officers to return to their states. "Even if they are unwilling, we try to motivate them. We encourage the cadre officers to revert to their states and serve the people," he had said.
It is to mention here that recently citing a shortage of IAS bureaucrats at the middle-level, the Narendra Modi government has asked all states to spare more officers for central deputation
In a letter to all states, including Jammu and Kashmir, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said the movement of the officers from states to the Centre and back is crucial for building capabilities at the state-level and contributing towards developing national perspectives at the decision-making levels in the government of India.
"It would, therefore, be appropriate considering the fact that there is general shortage of IAS officers at Deputy Secretary/Director level, if a conscious attempt is made while forwarding the names of the officers, so as to share the shortage proportionately between the Centre and the states and also that every eligible officer has an opportunity to serve at the Centre at least once at the middle management level," reads the official communiqué. |
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