Ranchi, Jan. 11: The Centre’s decision to allow 10 per cent increase in the strength of IAS officers in the new states will give a boost to the IAS cadre in Jharkhand.
The state government, which had pitched for 20 IAS officers, now appears to be content with adding 13 bureaucrats to the present strength of 129. Sources in the government said the process is under way to get at least IAS 13 officers following an “in-principle agreement” of the Centre to allow 10 per cent increase in the strength of IAS officials in Uttaranchal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
“Senior Jharkhand officials have held a meeting with the Union cabinet secretary. Another round of talks will be held soon. On the one hand, the Centre wants development but on the other, it directs state governments to cut down flab so that the exchequer is not burdened,” an official said.
“The state needs functional posts. Bihar was divided into two states so there should be a good number of officials in both the states to man various departments,” the official said.
“The shortage of IAS officials has resulted in most of the secretaries handling at least two departments. U.P. Singh is urban and rural development secretary, besides being the managing director of mineral development corporation. S.D. Sharma handles mining, vigilance and excise. Vimal Kirti Singh is secretary of industries, transport and civil aviation. A.C. Ranjan is secretary of PHED and revenue.”
“Of the 129 posts of IAS in Jharkhand, only 78 are senior duty posts of collectors and above. Among these one has to appoint commissioner, secretary, additional secretary, joint secretary, deputy commissioners of 22 districts and special secretaries,” the official said.
Advocating the need for more posts, he said: “The increase in posts can be filled up either through new recruitment of IAS officials or through promotion of state service officials.”
Chief minister Arjun Munda had announced in Jamshedpur in July that he would request the Centre to shift a senior Bihar IAS official, Amrita Paul, to Jharkhand. “Till date, no correspondence has been made by the state government in that connection. An IAS officer of Tripura cadre R.R. Sahu will, however, join Jharkhand on inter-state deputation,” the official said.
But a senior official wondered the rationale behind asking for more IAS posts when the size of the ministry has to slashed to 13 following the enactment of a legislation to that effect by Parliament.
