7th Pay panel slows IAS intake

High salary burden makes UPSC defer filling vacancies

The burden of the Pay Commission has apparently taken a toll on the recruitment of civil servants even when there is a massive shortage of IAS and IPS officers,  affecting the functioning of the governance.

According to the latest data of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), posts of as many as 1,449 IAS and 970 IPS officers are lying vacant across the country. These are in addition to vacancies in the Union Ministries and related departments where one-fourth of the sanctioned 400 posts of Director and Deputy Secretaries have also not been filled up.

Despite the huge shortage, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which is authorised to recruit IAS, IPS, IFS, IRS and allied services,  in its Civil Services notification for the current year has pegged down the vacancies to 782 in the elite services. This is less than the 2017 UPSC notification for 980 officers.

In 2014, the UPSC had notified for selection of a massive 1,364 officers and 1,228 vacancies for the 2013 batch.

A total of 1,091 posts in various Central services were notified for the 2012 IAS examinations.

“This could be due to the huge expense on salaries on account of the new Pay Commission. The shortage will ultimately affect the progress of the country when the leadership is now focusing to expedite and shape the policy decisions ahead of the general elections,” said a Government source.

According to figures, the salaries of 10 million Central Government employees account for 12.6 per cent of the Central Government’s total expenditure. The recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission doubling of the minimum starting salary from the current Rs 7,000 per month to Rs 18,000 per month has led to an added extra 0.7 per cent burden on the GDP and a yearly burden of Rs 1,02,000 crore.

The sanctioned posts of Group A level in Central Government departments are 117,285, while the number of employees presently is 101,901. Similarly, in Group B (Gazetted), the sanctioned posts are 136,079, while posts occupied are 109,769. The total posts vacant in the Central Government are 15,384 in Grade A and 26,310 in Grade B (Gazetted).

DoPT sources explained that there is a shortage of cadre officers in big States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Jharkhand. While the authorised strength of IAS in UP is 621, it has only 511 officers. Similarly, in Bihar, of the 342 sanctioned posts, the State has only 235 officers, whereas in Jharkhand cadre there are only 140 IAS against the sanctioned posts of 215. The authorised strength of IAS in Karnataka is 376 but it has only 313 officers, while the sanctioned strength of Tamil Nadu is 314 it has only 220 officers, as per the DoPT figures.

Further, a large number of  Group A Director/Deputy Secretary posts are also lying vacant in Government Ministries and departments. They are the ones who do the paper work before the files reach the Joint Secretaries (JS), and are the first in the chain of decision making.

The shortage of faculty in new Central universities and premier institutes like IITs is already a matter of concern, affecting the higher education system. While total vacancies in new Central universities are nearly 48 per cent, the older universities have 33 per cent vacancies.