As the Centre’s dry spell with Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) officers available to serve the Union Government continues, a proposal mooted in December 2021 to depute IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service (IFoS) officers to the Centre without necessarily taking the State Governments’ nod appears to have been put in cold storage. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said in a Right to Information (RTI) response that a final view on the proposal is yet to be taken and it cannot disclose the information held in a “fiduciary relationship”.
The proposal was moved as the Union Government is facing an acute shortage of All India Services (AIS — IAS, IPS and IFoS) officers, and despite existing provisions, States are not sponsoring adequate officers for Central deputation. In many cases, the officers are also not willing to serve the Union Government. According to the DoPT, only 10% of mid-level IAS officers were posted with the Union Government in 2021, a sharp fall from 19% in 2014.
On May 13, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved the appointment of 23 Joint Secretary rank officers in various Ministries, out of which only six were IAS officers and one officer belonged to the IPS. The remaining belonged to other Central services such as the Indian Audit and Accounts Services (IA&AS), Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS), Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE), Indian Post and Telecommunication Accounts and Finance Service (IP&TA&FS), and Indian Ordnance Factories Service (IFOS), among others. Till November 2021, there were 20 Joint Secretary level posts vacant in the Government of India (GOI). A Joint Secretary is the third-highest ranking officer in the GOI.
