Facing an acute shortage of IAS and IPS officer in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh territory, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has directed letters to all Cadre controlling authorities and has ordered them to immediately send IAS, IPS, and other all-India service officers on deputation to the union territories.
The MHA has demanded the authorities to “provide the name(s) of suitable officer(s), eligible for deputation in terms of existing guidelines and willing to serve in the Governments of UT of J&K/UT of Ladakh, along with the cadre-controlling authorities’ consent/no objection and vigilance clearance of the officers at the earliest”.
While J&K has restricted cadre strength of 137 IAS officers, only 58 of them are currently serving. Of these, at least nine are on deputation to the Government of India. Likewise, out of 147 cadre strength of IPS officers, only 66 of them are currently serving.
The former condition of Jammu & Kashmir was split and re-categorized last year as the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh. Till then, the J&K cadre was serving Ladakh as well. There is a proposal to merge the J&K cadre with AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, and Union Territories) in light of the re-organization, but it has yet to be implemented.
