The Centre has revised the process by which IAS, IPS and IFoS officers are assigned to state cadres, a major overhaul as part of a plan to make allocations more uniform and transparent.
The 2026 UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) Cadre Allocation Policy redraws the 2017 iteration of the framework, doing away with the zoning system and sets timelines for vacancies to be filled, according to an order issued by department of personnel and training director Yashu Rustagi on January 23.
The Cadre Allocation Policy is a framework under which candidates selected for the All India Services are assigned to a particular state cadre or a Joint Cadre (many states and Union territories share the same cadre of officers).
The Centre revised the policy for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), and Indian Forest Service (IFoS) after consultations with state governments.
Experts said the new policy brings uniformity in posting young officers across the country, will help make the services more pan-India services and sets deadlines for postings.
According to the 2017 policy, the states were grouped into different zones largely on geographical lines.For example, the AGMUT(Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, and Union Territories) cadre was grouped in Zone 1 along with Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Rajasthan. Similarly, Zone 2 had states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha.
{{/usCountry}}According to the 2017 policy, the states were grouped into different zones largely on geographical lines.For example, the AGMUT(Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, and Union Territories) cadre was grouped in Zone 1 along with Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Rajasthan. Similarly, Zone 2 had states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha.
{{/usCountry}}Candidates who cleared the civil services exam had to pick their cadre preferences based on these zones.
The new policy replaces these zones with groups, with states placed in alphabetical order. So now, the AGMUT cadre sits in Group 1, alongside Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh.
Retired officers said this grouping will ensure officers are not able to take advantage of the geographical allocation of states, and that each state will be treated at par when they are allocated officers.
Columnist and retired IFoS officer BK Singh, a 1975-batchofficer, who served as the principal chief conservator of forests in Karnataka, said the geographical segmentation system was first introduced in the 1980s and that it allowed candidates to prefer their home cadre state or a nearby province.
“For example, if you did not get Uttar Pradesh, then you could choose Bihar or Madhya Pradesh, which are nearby. But this system was changed in between,” he said.
“The new policy is transparent, and every state will get officers from across the country depending on vacancies. For instance, according to Group 4, you could be allotted Telangana as well as Tripura. You won’t be able to say that if you don’t get Telangana, you want to be posted in a state next to it,” added Singh.
According to the new policy, states must submit vacancy requisitions by January 31 each year, and vacancies will be calculated based on the “cadre gap” as of January 1 of that year.
Under the new policy, the cadre allocations should be done as early as possible, preferably, before the professional course begins.