NEW DELHI: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh, who is also Minister Incharge DoPT (Department of Personnel & Training), said here today that UT cadre will offer Jammu & Kashmir wider choice of officers to choose from because there is going to be a much larger pool of All India Service officers, including IAS officers, for posting in the two newly created Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
In an exclusive interview to Doordarshan on the implications of the government order merging the J&K cadre of All India Services into the AGMUT cadre, Dr. Jitendra Singh said, J&K will now be getting its officers from the common cadre available for the three States of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram as well as all the Union Territories of India. As a result of this, he said, the officers from J&K can now be moved seamlessly in and out of J&K among the different Union Territories of India as well as the three States of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Mizoram. Such an arrangement often tends to bring in more accountability in the conduct and performance of officers, he added.
Dr. Jitendra Singh further disclosed that bringing in another reform, the DoPT has also done away with the UPA regime order whereby J&K used to have directly appointed IAS officers vis-a-vis IAS officers inducted from the State KAS in the ratio of 50:50, which was in contrast to the ratio of around 67:33 maintained in other State/UT cadres of the country whereby over 67% IAS officers are the ones who have been directly selected into IAS through All India Civil Services Exam. As a result of this earlier arrangement, he said, the number of directly inducted IAS officers was much lower in Jammu & Kashmir whereas a large number of IAS officers were those who had been inducted into IAS from the State KAS services. Now, with the introduction of the same ratio in J&K as is prevalent elsewhere, this anomaly will also stand corrected to a large extent and the composition of IAS services in J&K will be the same as else where, he added.
After the creation of Union Territory following the abrogation of Article 370, said Dr. Jitendra Singh, the merger of J&K cadre into AGMUT cadre was a natural corollary and would further carry forward the process of total integration of J&K with the mainstream India.
Meanwhile, in response to another question, Dr. Jitendra Singh thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Industrial Package of over Rs.28,000 crore announced yesterday. He said, this would not only lead to revenue generation and job creation but would also help in inculcating a healthy spirit of competitiveness among the entrepreneurs of Jammu & Kashmir who will now have the opportunity to be exposed to the new parameters of progressive entrepreneurship of global nature, being witnessed in the rest of India.
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