NEW DELHI, Mar 4: Shortage of officers is not limited to the armed forces alone, the civil services too are facing a shortfall of over 1,600 officers.
West Bengal with an approved strength of 359 IAS officers is managing with 220 officers. The shortage of 139 officers is the maximum among all the 24 cadres, Lok Sabha was informed today.
The Uttar Pradesh cadre follows closely with a shortage of 118 officers. While the state has an approved strength of 592 IAS officers — the maximum among all cadre — it is managing with 474 officers.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said while the total approved strength of 24 cadre is 6,270, the working strength stood at 4,619 as on January 1, 2014. The shortage stood at 1,651 officers.
“In order to address the issue of shortage of IAS officers in regular recruitment quota, the government has increased annual intake of officers from 55 in the Civil Services examination 1998 to 180 in 2013.
“In promotion quota, prompt actions have been taken for holding selection committee meetings for appointment by promotion/selecting state service officers to IAS,” he said. (PTI)
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