Mudassir Ahmad
SRINAGAR: 200 IAS, IPS posts are among the 4000 gazetted posts that are lying vacant in the state thus affecting the functioning of the governance.
The shortage of officers of the IAS, IPS KAS, KPS and other gazetted posts that are lying vacant have been affecting administrative activity in various government departments in the state.
J&K has a strength of 137 IAS officers of which 75 are direct recruitments while as 62 are promotion posts. However, it is facing a shortage of 60 officers thus affecting the functioning of the governance as many bureaucrats are holding two to three charges.
According to the official figures, J&K is presently having 88 IAS officers of which eight J&K cadre IAS officers are on central deputation and some are on probation.
Those eight IAS officers who are on central deputation are Krishan Ballabh Aggarval, additional secretary to ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Suresh Kumar joint secretary ministry of Defence, Sadhunshu Pandey joint secretary department of Commerce, Arun Kumar Mehta joint secretary ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Atal Dulloo, joint secretary in department of Rural Development department, Umang Narula chairman and managing director India Tourism Development Corporation, Manoj Kumar Dwiwedi joint secretary ministry of Commerce, M Raju undersecretary department of Atomic Energy and three are on probation-Diofode Sagar Dattatray, Rahul Yadav and Owais Ahmad.
The retirement of 14 IAS officers in 2015 has further added to the administrative crisis. The state government has requested the Centre to depute all local cadre IAS officers in J&K in the wake of a major shortfall of bureaucrats in the state.
Three IAS officers — Dheeraj Gupta, Navin Chowdhary and RK Goyal — then returned to J&K last year.
The State Administrative Council (SAC) under the chairmanship of Governor N N Vohra earlier this year approved the proposal submitted by the General Administration Department to increase the strength of the J&K Cadre of IAS from existing 137 posts to 145 posts. The recommendations have been sent to the Department of Personnel and Trainings (DoPT), Government of India.
Similarly, 56 of the 147 IPS posts are lying in the state and many police officers are holding two to three charges.
An official of the Home department said for the past six-years, the government has failed to send a proposal to the Union Public Service Commission to fill the posts of IPS posts because of several litigations against the seniority list of KPS officers who are be inducted into the IPS cadre.
Official data reveals that 3463 gazetted posts including KAS and KPS are lying vacant and many officers have been assigned the additional charge due to shortage of officers.
The State Administrative Council (SAC) earlier this year approved the proposal submitted by the GAD to increase the cadre strength of the KAS from the 408 senior duty posts to 552 posts.
