Bengal gets 12 new IAS officers from 2018 batch

The Centre has increased the allocation of IAS officers to Bengal by 12. The move comes after several comments in the last two years by chief minister Mamata Banerjee on a shortfall of IAS officers in the state and her intention of setting up a new administrative cadre of officers to counter this crunch.




On Monday, the Centre informed state chief secretary Malay De about allocating the 12 officers from the 2018 batch.

Even with this extra allocation, the IAS shortfall in Bengal has not been completely bridged. The total allotment of IAS officers for Bengal is 317. Right now, with the additional 12 sanctioned, the figure stands at 298, up from 286.

The department of personnel and tranining (DoPT), which controls IAS officers, in a letter on December 3 to the Bengal chief secretary, mentioned that it was allocating four officers to Bengal who are domiciled in Maharashtra: Hirani Aditya Vikram Mohan, Salunkha Piyush Bhagwan Rao, Joshi Rohan Laxmikant and Patil Srinivas Vyankat Rao. Four officers domiciled in UP are also getting Bengal cadre: E Ahmed, H Zaheer Rizvi, S Sekhar and Naveen Kumar Chandra. There are two from Bengal: S K Choudhury and A Zia. Two other IAS officers are from Kerala and Chattisgarh.

Officers said the shortfall was mainly due to the release of IAS officers for central deputation and for which the Bengal CM has asked not to allow any officer for central deputation. But the DoPT has been urging the state to release officers for central deputation, which is mandatory for IAS officers. Right now there are over 30 IAS officers awaiting their stint for central deputation, said a Nabanna official.

“For several reasons, junior officers are not getting their central deputation or change of cadre, for which three officers have even moved the Central Administrative Tribunal seeking relief,” the official said.