Amendments To IAS Cadre Rules: Centre Responds To Objections From States

Amendments To IAS Cadre Rules: Centre Responds To Objections From States Amidst the ongoing controversy surrounding the proposal to amend the All India Service (cadre) Rules 1954, the Centre on Thursday clarified that the move will not affect the states.

Union Minister of State for Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Jitendra Singh on Thursday told the Rajya Sabha that the proposals to amend the IAS (Cadre) Rules, 1954 relates to the Central deputation of IAS officers.

Following amendments, IAS, IPS (Indian Police Service) and IFoS (Indian Forest Service) officers could be deputed to the Union government and Central Ministries without necessarily taking the nod of the state governments. Such proposals for amendment in the Service Cadre Rules were earlier opposed by several states including Odisha.

The Odisha government’s General Administration Department had reportedly shot off a letter to the Centre underlining that the developmental projects and their implementation in the State will get hampered if civil servants were taken on Central deputation.

Meanwhile, the Centre has said that the IAS (Fixation of Cadre Strength) Regulations, 1955 provide for a Central deputation reserve not exceeding 40% of the senior duty posts of a cadre/joint cadre. “However, state governments have not been sponsoring adequate number of officers for Central deputation to meet the requirements of the Government of India,” it said.

“Therefore, in order to address the above problem, comments have been sought from states and Union Territories, in terms of the provisions contained in Section 3 of All India Services Act, 1951 on a proposal to amend Rule 6(1) of IAS (Cadre) Rules, 1954,” Singh added in his reply.