Jammu, Dec 9: The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) are understood to have approved 18 posts of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) for induction of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Services (JKAS) officers leaving six posts for the next year along with more vacancies that will be generated in 2024.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Union Territory administration has received communications from the MHA and DoPT giving nod to filling up of 18 vacancies of IAS in Jammu and Kashmir with the induction of JKAS officers. As all formalities for inductions have already been completed, the UT administration is now awaiting formal meeting to be convened by the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) with representatives from J&K Government, MHA and DoPT to formally approve the inductions.
“We have received the formal letters from MHA and DoPT for induction of JKAS officers into IAS. However, instead of expected induction of 24 JKAS officers into IAS, they have given nod to 18 inductions,” the sources said but added that six vacancies will roll over to next year and will be filled up along with new vacancies that will be available in 2024.
The Government is confident that by the end of this year or start of new year, the process of inductions will be completed and 18 JKAS officers will benefit out of that. Shortage of IAS officers will also be overcome to quite an extent with the inductions, the sources said.
This will be for the second year in a row that JKAS officers will get inducted into IAS. On August 4, 2022, 16 JKAS officers were inducted into IAS. A total of 28 JKAS officers were cleared for induction on July 8, 2022 but 11 of them were later dropped as eight had retired from the services, two refused induction and one had died while fate of another was kept in sealed cover.
Eleven posts were later declared vacant while 13 posts were available for inductions taking total count of vacancies to 24 which had to be filled up but due to different reasons only 18 of them have been cleared for inductions, the sources said.
All JKAS officers tipped for induction into IAS belonged to 1999 batch, the officials said.
There were a total of 41 posts pending for induction of JKAS officers into IAS, sources said, adding that 37 posts will be filled up after induction of 18 JKAS officers and rest will be cleared next year.
“One post is still under dispute as fate of a JKAS officer has been in a sealed cover as he was facing an inquiry,” the officials said.
Induction of JKAS officers into IAS hadn’t been carried out for last nearly 12 years because of seniority disputes, legal hurdles etc.
The 1999 JKAS batch of officers had to wait for 24 long years for their induction into the IAS, the officials said. The Government now 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 was the case earlier in Jammu and Kashmir.
Besides benefiting the JKAS officers, their induction into IAS will also help the Jammu and Kashmir Government to fill some vacancies 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.
Sources said the JKAS officers being inducted into the IAS, will get AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram Union Territories) cadre.
Meanwhile, the Forest Department, as already reported, has also completed months long exercise for induction of SFS and other eligible officers of the Forest Department and its allied wings, Wildlife and Soil Conservation, into IFoS and the process is now nearing completion.
“A total of 32 SFS (State Forest Services) and other officers will be inducted into IFoS shortly,” they said.
