Bihar is set to get an increased allotment of direct recruit officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS) this year.

The additions will help the state to some extent in tiding over the problem of acute shortage of both IAS and IPS officers it has been facing for the past few years.

Several IAS officers are holding additional charge of different departments. This has resulted in inordinate delay in the execution of administrative work at different levels.

At present, there is a shortage of 148 IAS officers and 76 IPS officers in the state.

Sources said nine newly recruited IAS officers would be taking up assignments in Bihar next month.

The officers — Rahul Kumar, Mithilesh Mishra, Mahendra Kumar, Alok Ranjan Ghosh, Himanshu Sharma, Tyagi Ranjan S.D. Nilesh, Pankaj Dixit and S. Kapil — are undergoing training at Lal Bahadur National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie.

Similarly, eight IPS officers of the 2011 batch have been allotted Bihar cadre and they are undergoing training at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad.

The names of the IPS officers assigned the Bihar cadre have, however, not yet been provided to the state police headquarters.

“We are yet to receive any official information about the fresh allotment of direct recruit IPS officers to the state,” said additional director-general of police (headquarters) Ravinder Kumar.

He said he had been tipped off about eight IPS officers being allotted the Bihar cadre.

According to sources in the general administration department, five IAS officers were allotted the Bihar cadre in both 2008 and 2009. However, in 2010, the number of IAS officers given the Bihar cadre rose to nine after the state government took up the issue of shortage with the Centre.

“About 50 officers of the Bihar Administrative Service are likely to be promoted to the IAS rank this year. The vacancies under the state quota will be filled up with the promotion of the state service officers. This will ease the problem to some extent,” an officer posted with the general administration department said.

He said a proposal had already been submitted to the Centre to increase the allotment of direct recruit IAS officers in the state. “It is a fact that for the past two years, the allotment of direct recruit officers has increased in the state,” he added.

Bihar has a sanctioned strength of 326 IAS officers. Of 178 IAS officers, 32 are currently on central deputation while an officer, H.R. Srinivas (1996 batch), is posted in Karnakata on inter-state deputation.

Sources in the home department said Bihar has only 155 IPS officers against the sanctioned strength of 231. In 2010, eight IPS officers were allotted the Bihar cadre. In 2009, seven IPS officers had opted for Bihar. In 2008, the number came down to four.