BENGALURU:  The state government machinery is short of 101 IAS and IPS officers — there are 428 officers against the sanctioned strength of 529. Due to this, officers handle more than one department each, and their burden is likely to further increase as over two dozen officers are set to retire by the end of next year. 

According to DPAR, there are 314 sanctioned IAS posts, but at present, only 256 are occupied. In the IPS, 172 officials are on the rolls against the sanctioned strength of 215. Retirements are expected to further shrink the pool: this year, 13 IAS officers are retiring (some have retired), whereas in the IPS cadre, four officials are due to retire this year.

“We also draw up a list of officials who are to retire next year. According to this, 16 IAS and 12 IPS officials will retire by end of 2020. In 2017, there was shortage of 75 IAS officers, but the situation is better now with a shortage of 58 officers. The IAS and IPS shortage started in the early 1990s, when the annual intake was reduced from 150 to only 80 officers. Of these, Karnataka would get four or less. It was only a couple of years ago that the all-India intake was hiked to 180, and the state government is getting nine or ten officers a year.

‘We have 14 KAS officers due for IAS promotion’

Chief Secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar told The New Indian Express that there has been a shortage in the IAS-IPS cadre for some years, but things are better now.“Every year on an average, 8 IAS probationary offices and a few IPS officers are inducted. We don’t have an immediate solution for this. Things should be better in the coming years. This apart, we are promoting senior KAS officers; this year, we have 14 KAS officers who are due for IAS promotion,’’ he added.

A senior IAS officer said that two years ago, peeved over frequent transfers, a section of IAS officers in the state had appealed to then Chief Secretary Subhash Chandra Khuntia, seeking his intervention to continue in their posts for at least two years. “Some of them were transferred twice a year. Now that the government has changed, transfers will happen again. Officers will take a few weeks to get a grip of the department, and by the time they understand and start working, they are transferred to a different department,’’ the officer said.

To cover the shortage, many officials are given additional charge. “When we do this, we don’t allot two big departments or responsibilities to one officer. A capable officer is given two, with one being a major responsibility,’’ Bhaskar said.An officer said that they don’t have an issue handling two departments at a time. “But we should be given a free hand and allowed to work for a certain period,’’ he said.