SrinagarWith at least five IAS officers having retired recently and 11top officers of the J&K cadre on central deputation, the Jammu and Kashmir government is facing a severe shortage of all-India level civil servants at important positions.
Several bureaucrats have been given the charge of additional departments, and in some cases officers handle more than two departments, which has seriously hampered the functioning of government offices, sources in the government said.
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 an availability of 84 officers, one top officer said, on the condition of anonymity.
Out of 84 the in-position 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 the Modi Government, the officer said.
In some departments, positions that should have been held by IAS officers are held by officers ineligible for the posts, sources said.
The functioning of some departments suffers more due to fewer visits of officers holding additional charge.
These administrative secretaries normally have to operate from one office only. The situation is so bad that officers often find themselves in a piquant situation because of two ministers calling meetings on the same date and at the same time, sources said.
In view of the shortage of bureaucrats, the government is considering to raise the issue with the Centre for amendments in the service rules of IAS officers in the state.
The government is considering amendments in service rules of IAS officers. Presently, an IAS officer is posted as secretary only if he has 13 years of service. But the government is considering to appoint IAS officers (of the 2009 batch) as secretaries even if they have nine years of services, an official of the General Administration Department (GAD) said.
If IAS officers of batches later than 2006 are posted as secretaries then there would be no shortage of bureaucrats, he said.
The state government has repeatedly been asking the centre to shift J&K cadre IAS officers back to the state for streamlining the administration as shortage of officers has been hitting working in different departments.
The J&K government has sought the return of all IAS officers of the JK cadre from the centre, but the central government has so far given a cold response, he said.
Union Minister of State in-charge of the department of personnel and training (DoPT), Dr Jitendra Singh had recently said that the Centre was trying to persuade 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, the minister had said.
Recently, citing a shortage of IAS officers at the middle-level, the Narendra Modi government had 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) had said that the movement of officers from states to the Centre and back was 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 and director levels, 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,” the official communiqué reads. (KNS)
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