Staff crunch: Himachal govt to recall IAS officers on central deputation

However, prior to putting in the request, the state government is seeking the officers’ consent of returning back to the hill state.

Facing staff crunch, Himachal Pradesh government has decided to recall more Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officers on central deputation.

Recently, the state government had written to the Centre to repatriate five IAS officers of Himachal cadre and is mulling to recall more.

Himachal has a total cadre strength of 148 IAS and as many as 28 of them are on different deputations with the central government.

However, prior to putting in the request, the state government is seeking the officers’ consent of returning back to the hill state. In April, the state government had requested to repatriate at least half a dozen officers, out of which many showed unwillingness to return back to the state.

“There has been a shortage of IAS officers in the state. We will seek their consent before recalling them back,” additional chief secretary Shrikant Baldi said.

The state government has been feeling the pinch of bureaucratic crunch since long.

Chief minister Jai Ram-led state government has been persisting IAS officers on central deputation to return back to the state.

Recently senior bureaucrat—Anil Khachi—moved to the Centre while principal secretary (finance) Anil Kumar Khachi, a 1986 batch IAS, was appointed as secretary of department of investment and public asset management.

Himachal chief secretary B K Aggarwal has been appointed as secretary, Lokayukta. The 1985-batch IAS officer had taken over the chief secretary post in October last year and is due for superannuation in 2021.

A 1985-batch IAS, Shrikant Baldi, who is additional chief secretary and principal secretary to chief ministers, is likely to succeed Aggarwal, who will proceed to New Delhi after monsoon session commences on August 31.

Those on central deputation include Asa Ram Sihag, Sanjeev Gupta, Ali Raza Rizvi, Kondru Sanjay Murthy, Bharat Harbans Lal Khera, Manish Garg, Rajnish, Subashish Panda, Anuradha Thakur, Meera Mohanty, Amandeep Garg, Ritesh Chauhan, Amitabh Awasthi, Pushpendra Rajput, Nandita Gupta, R Selvam, Ashish Singhmar and R D Nazeem.

Previous state government led by Virbhadra Singh had also written to the central government and sent letters to different state governments for deputing IAS officers in the cadre post in the state.

But the move did not fall through.

Besides repatriating IAS officers, the previous Congress government had urged the central government to enhance the number of cadre from 147 to 155.

Adding to the woes, the department of personnel and training (DoPT) has enhanced the tenure central deputation to seven years, forcing the state government to write to the Centre for sending back its officers.