BANGALORE: Severe shortage of IAS and IPS officers seems to be a major concern for the Siddaramaiah government that completed one year on May 12.
Many top officers have been given additional responsibilities as there are only 215 IAS officers as against sanctioned strength of 315. Further, there are only 144 IPS officers as against the sanctioned strength of 205. It is the same situation with the IFS and KAS officers.
According to the information obtained from the DPAR, there is a shortage of officers in the state. In the forest service, there are 149 officers as against the sanctioned strength of 164 and in KAS it is 350 while the strength is 590. Sources said the shortage is because the Central government did not recruit adequate number of officers between 1990 and 2005.
“This has resulted in an additional burden on senior officers especially on Secretary and Principal Secretary cadre officers. IAS officers below the ranks of Secretary are normally posted in districts other than Bangalore and will not get additional responsibilities,” an official said. Sources said after 2008, on an average, every year eight IAS officers, six to seven IPS and three to four Indian Forest Service officers were allotted to the Karnataka cadre. Sources also said that in the next two months, three IAS officers will retire and two each from IPS and IFS cadre too are retiring.
A senior officer who is holding two posts and did not wish to reveal his identity said, “After all IAS or IPS officers are human beings. We have to obey government orders and cannot refuse if additional charge is given. But if something goes wrong in our department, our higher officials, ministers, people and even media blame us.”
Speaking to Express, former Chief Secretary A Ravindra said holding additional post up to a couple of weeks is fine. “But holding the post for a longer period will pose a serious problem. When an officer is posted for two different departments, his attention will be diverted. They are overburdened. This problem has been existing for the past several years and will increase further after the retirement of some IAS and IPS officers,” he said.
Ravindra said the state has no role in recruitment of IAS and IPS officers. It can direct the KPSC to begin a special recruitment of KAS officers.
Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee said they had sent a list of officers to the Centre recommending their promotion from KAS to IAS cadre. “By end of May, we will get 15 IAS officers who are promoted from the KAS cadre,” he said. He said, “But none of them are complaining of holding two or more posts. They are working efficiently. After all, the departments are not run by IAS officers alone, there are other officers too,” he said.
IAS, IPS officers Holding two posts
IAS
■ N Sivasailam: Principal Secretary to Health department is also the in-charge for Medical Education
■ V Yashwanth: BBMP Special Commissioner is in-charge Additional Commissioner (Projects)
■ Kapil Mohan: Managing Director, Krishna Bhagya Jal Nigam Limited is also the in-charge Principal Secretary, Water Resources Department
■ Srivatsa Krishna: Secretary to Information Technology, Bio-Technology and Science and Technology Department is also secretary to DPAR (E-Governance)
■ Amlan Aditya Biswas: Bellary Deputy Commissioner is also the Regional Commissioner of Gulbarga
IPS
■ K S R Charan Reddy is an IGP, SIT, Karnataka Lokayukta with additional charge of IGP, Vigilance
■ N S Megharikh: ADGP (Crimes and Technical Services) is Commissioner for Transport and Road Safety
■ M N Reddy: ADGP (Law and Order) is ADGP (RLYS)