30 per cent shortage of IAS officers: Govt

The elite Indian Administrative Service faces a shortage of about 30 per cent officers, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

Against a total authorised strength of 6,154 IAS officers in the country, there were only 4,377, Minister of State for Personnel V Narayanasamy said during Question Hour.

"1,777 posts are lying vacant," he said, adding that out of 4,377 officers in position, 3,392 are direct recruitment and the rest are promotees.

Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of vacant positions at 216, followed by Bihar which has 128 vacant positions followed by Madhya Pradesh (118), Rajasthan (112) and Jharkhand (100), he said.

"IAS officers are borne to the state cadres. They, however, serve the Government of India on Central deputation. Out of the total authorised strength of 6,154 IAS officers in the country, the Central Deputation Reserve is 1,331 enabling the IAS officers to serve the Government of India on deputation. Of these, 675 IAS officers are in position as on April 1, 2012," he said.

Narayanasamy said there were litigations against promotion of state cadre officers to the rank of IAS in states like Uttar Pradesh, while the Odisha government did not send the list of officers to be promoted in that state.

"If all states cooperate, vacancies will come down to 15 per cent," he said, adding the Centre was working with the state governments to see vacancies are filled at the earliest.

The minister said that the government has accepted the Baswan Committee recommendations on the requirement of IAS officers. The panel had made 13 recommendations that included cadre review every five years and state governments sending names well in advance.

The committee's recommendation of increasing direct intake to 180 has been implemented, he added.