IAS, IPS allocation policy rejigged for ‘national integration of bureaucracy’

According to the new policy, the existing 26 cadres will be divided into five zones instead of states.

The government has finalised a new policy for allocation of cadre to officers of three all India services – Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFS).

Indian Police Service (IPS) probationers make the ceremonial march at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad in October 2006.(AFP File Photo)

Under the new policy, the Centre has decided to divide all 26 existing cadres into five zones and candidates will have to mention their preferred choices in descending order when appearing for the civil services examination.

While choosing their preference, candidates will have to indicate states from each zone. However, candidates will be allotted home states on the basis of merit, preference and vacancy.

The new policy will seek to ensure that officers from Bihar, for instance, will get to work in southern and north- eastern states, which may not be their preferred cadres, a personnel ministry official said.

“This policy will ensure national integration of the bureaucracy as officers will get a chance to work in a state which is not their place of domicile,” the official said.

He said the new policy would help in upholding the rationale behind the all-India services.

“All-India service officers are supposed to have varied experiences which can be earned when they work in a different state, which is new to them. The officers may not be able to experiment new things if they work in their own domicile state,” the official said.

The new zones are:

Zone-I – AGMUT (also known as Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territories), Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana.

Zone-II – Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha

Zone-III – Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh

Zone-IV – West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam-Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura and Nagaland

Zone-V – Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

The policy is likely to be implemented from this year.

The officers of the services are currently allocated a cadre state or a set of states to work in.

They may be posted on central deputation during the course of their service after fulfilling certain eligibility conditions.

(With PTI inputs)