‘Shortage of IAS, other officers on rise’

NEW DELHI: Shortage of IAS officers is not a new issue, but the shortage reaching an alarming level in the recent past is a matter of serious concern. According to latest Parliamentary Standing Committee report, which was tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, shortage of officers is on the rise in every department under the DOPT, including UPSC, CBI, CVC, CIC, etc.

“There are 324 vacancies in UPSC (excluding members) out of the total sanctioned strength of 758, while in the CBI, there is 21 per cent shortage of officers as the apex investigating agency has 1,068 vacancies out of total sanctioned strength of 5000,” said the 90th report of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice.

The panel stated that there is a shortage of 1,470 IAS officers against the authorised strength of 6,396 as on January 1, 2016. “The panel was informed that out of 1,470 vacancies, about 900 vacancies are from the direct recruitment quota and rest from state promotion quotas. The main reason for the shortfall is abnormally low recruitment in the recent past,” the report said.

Shockingly, 120 directly recruited officers retire every year, while only 60 officers are added every year to IAS category, which is 50 per lesser. The panel, headed by Congress leader Anand Sharma, noted that almost all the key and strategic positions under the Central and state governments are being manned by IAS officers and persistent shortage of the officers ultimately affecting governance in the country.

According to the panel’s report, there is acute of shortage of members in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) as it is running short of 21 members out of total sanctioned strength of 66 affecting timely disposal of cases. The CAT is also having a shortage of 219 staff to handle the cases.

Notably, as on January 1, 2017, about 41,849 cases are pending before various benches of CAT. Interestingly, about 3,823 cases are pending for more than five years and about 10,007 are pending for 3-5 years.

Parliamentary panel report underlines officers’ shortage in every department under DOPT