Inductions after 12 years due to seniority, other disputes
*Vacancies filled up for years 2013-18
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, July 7: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) today cleared induction of 28 officers of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Services (JKAS) including 14 each Serving and Retired into the Indian Administrative Services (IAS).
This is for the first time in last 12 years that the JKAS officers have been inducted into the IAS.
Inductions were cleared in a meeting chaired by the UPSC Member and attended among others by Additional Chief Secretary Agriculture Atal Dulloo, Principal Secretary General Administration Department (GAD) Manoj Kumar Dwivedi and two Joint Secretary rank officers deputed by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India, in New Delhi.
Officials told the Excelsior that there was proposal for induction of 41 JKAS officers into IAS but the meeting finally settled for 28 only as only these number of vacancies were identified for the years 2013-2018.
“Eight vacancies have been filled up for the year 2013, five for 2016, four for 2017 and highest 11 for the year 2018,” the officials said, adding there were no vacancies for the years 2014 and 2015.
However, out of 28 posts, only 14 have gone to Serving JKAS officers while rest were allotted to the officers who have since retired from the services. The 1999 batch JKAS officers will be major beneficiaries of the inductions which have been carried out purely on seniority basis after the seniority list was finalized by the GAD.
A couple of officers prior to 1999 batch have also found berth in the IAS.
The inductions, as per the officials, will help Jammu and Kashmir overcome shortage of the IAS officers. Presently, as against 75 duty posts of IAS, only 55 officers are in place in Jammu and Kashmir. The list includes the officers sent on deputation in the Union Territory of Ladakh.
“The gap will be plugged to quite an extent,” the officials said.
Further, the vacancies in middle rank IAS officers will be filled up. Presently, some of the IAS officers are holding charge of twin departments.
Moreover, they said, the inductions will now become a regular feature every year and the JKAS officers of not only 1999 batch but the other batches will also get benefited by getting inducted into the IAS.
According to the officials, the IAS posts which have been allotted to retired JKAS officers will be declared as vacant in next round and filled up later from among the serving officers.
A formal notification of JKAS officers’ induction into the IAS will be issued by the UPSC in next few days.
The officials said the exercise for induction of JKAS officers into IAS was delayed because of seniority disputes and certain other issues.
However, the General Administration Department headed by Manoj Dwivedi initiated the exercise last year for inductions which hadn’t been carried out for last 12 years and finally 28 officers got rank of the IAS.
The vacancies for the years 2019 to 2022 are pending. More posts will be added to the tally after posts allotted to retired officers are declared as vacant.
The UPSC, as per the officials, had earlier raised number of queries pertaining to the inductions, which were replied by the administration resulting into today’s meeting.
Sources said the JKAS officers inducted into the IAS, will get AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram Union Territories) cadre as the Union Home Ministry had already merged erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir cadre into AGMUT as J&K was made a Union Territory on August 5, 2019.
The 1999 batch of JKAS officers are major beneficiary of inductions. However, at the same time, decks have been cleared for inductions of next batches of JKAS officers also at the later stage.
The 1999 JKAS batch of officers had to wait for 23 long years for their induction into the IAS, the officials said. The Government proposed to make it a regular feature every year so that the JKAS officers are timely inducted into the IAS like other States and Union Territories and not after 12 years as is the case presently in Jammu and Kashmir.
Besides benefiting the JKAS officers, their induction into IAS will also help the Jammu and Kashmir Government to overcome shortage of IAS officers in the Union Territory. It may be mentioned here that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has deployed several officers of All India Services on two to three years deputation in the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh due to shortage of the IAS officers.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
