Vacant posts, overburdened officials — why Haryana is asking Centre for more IAS officers

Vacant posts, overburdened officials — why Haryana is asking Centre for more IAS officers

Gurugram: Haryana is grappling with a shortage of IAS officers, as only 166 of them are working against the sanctioned strength of 215— leaving a gap of around 20 percent. The state government has written to the central government to depute at least 10 new officers, as six more are due to retire later this year, ThePrint has learnt.

A senior officer of the state government confirmed to ThePrint that Haryana has requested the central government for 10 new IAS officers this year, as the state is already facing a deficit of officers and the gap will increase with the retirement of six IAS officers.

“A similar letter was written to the Centre last year as well,” the officer added.

The continuing shortfall in IAS officers has resulted in many officers at the senior level holding multiple charges. For instance, T.V.S.N. Prasad, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) of Revenue, is also the ACS in charge of the home, jail, criminal investigation and administration of justice departments, as well as the chief resident commissioner of Haryana Bhawan in New Delhi.

Similarly, Sudhir Rajpal is holding the charge of three major departments — school education, agriculture and civil aviation — as additional chief secretary.

The ACS of medical education and research Sumita Misra is the ACS of food, civil supplies and consumer affairs, while Ankur Gupta is the ACS in charge of animal husbandry as well as fisheries.

Anurag Rastogi is the ACS of finance and planning as well as architecture. The ACS Anand Mohan Sharan has three departments to look after — industries, information and technology and higher education. D. Suresh, resident commissioner, Haryana, is also the principal secretary for the human resources department.

At the divisional level, Renu Phulia is the commissioner of both the Karnal and Ambala divisions. At the same time, Sanjeev Verma is the commissioner of Rohtak division and the managing director of Haryana Backward Classes Nigam.

Ramesh Chander Bidhan is the commissioner of the Gurugram division and also the managing director of two Nigams — Haryana Seed Development Corporation and Haryana Mineral Limited, besides being the chairman of Mewat Development Authority, Nuh.

Geeta Bharti is the commissioner of Hisar division and the managing director of Haryana Scheduled Castes and Finance Development Corporation.

IPS officers on IAS posts

Some IPS officers of the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) rank have also been given the charge of IAS posts.

Navdeep Virk, a 1994 batch ADGP rank IPS officer, is the principal secretary of the transport department.

Earlier, ADGP O.P. Singh, IPS Pankaj Nain and IPS Amitabh Dhillon have also served as principal secretary of the sports department, director general of the sports department and director general of the mines department, respectively.

According to the information available on the website of the chief secretary, Haryana, the Department of Personnel and Training in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has fixed the authorised strength of IAS officers in Haryana at 212, including 64 promotional posts.

However, a statement by the government on 23 March, 2022, put the authorised strength at 215 with 181 officers in position as on 1 January, 2021. In 2018, the state government added three more posts to the sanctioned strength making it 215.

The total number of officers available with the state government currently is 166.

The IAS officers due to retire this year include, chief secretary Sanjeev Kaushal, T.V.S.N. Prasad, Shrikant Walgad, Renu Phulia, and Naresh Kumar.

On average, the state has been getting six to seven new officers every year — six officers joined in 2021 and seven in 2023.

On the other hand, nine IAS officers will retire in 2025, and 13 more will reach superannuation in 2026.

With 28 IAS officers set to retire by December 2026, the gap between the sanctioned strength and the available strength is to widen in the coming years unless the central government gives an increased number of officers.

The government can narrow some of the gaps by promotions from the Haryana Civil Service (HCS) and non-HCS officers, but these can’t exceed more than one-third of the total strength of the cadre minus those on the “Leave Reserve” — number of posts reserved for people anticipated to remain on leave at a given point of time.

“Also, those who come through promotions are normally in their 50s and, hence, retire early against those recruited directly, who normally have 30 or more years to serve,” said the officer quoted above.

Authorised strength and actual strength

According to the Indian Administrative Services (Fixation of Cadre Strength) Amendment Regulations, 2003, notified by the Department of Personnel and Training on 26 August, 2003, the authorised cadre strength of Haryana was fixed at 212.

This included 148 posts to be filled through direct recruitment and 64 promotional posts. These comprised 115 senior duty posts under the state government, 46 for the central deputation reserve, 28 for the state deputation reserve, four for the training reserve, and 19 for the Leave Reserve.

Of these 212 posts, 148 are to be filled through direct recruitment, and 64 through promotions from the State Civil Services (SCS) and non-SCS officers.

(Edited by Richa Mishra)