9 years service clause relaxed: Dr Jitendra
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 6: With a view to overcome shortage of IAS officers in Jammu and Kashmir, the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) today cleared inter-cadre deputation of four IAS officers for their posting in the Union Territory in relaxation of the policy for a period of three years in case of three officers and two years in case of two.
Excelsior had exclusively reported that to reduce shortage of IAS officers in Jammu and Kashmir, the DoPT has decided to relax Policy to ensure that local officers of J&K posted in other States/Union Territories as well as other officers interested for posting in J&K, are shifted here.
While orders for inter-cadre deputation of five IAS officers have been issued, some more officers could also be posted on deputation to Jammu and Kashmir shortly.
The officers, who have been posted in Jammu and Kashmir on inter-cadre deputation for three years, are Athar Aamir Ul Shafi Khan, a resident of Kashmir and IAS officer of 2016 batch of Rajasthan cadre, Akshay Labroo from Jammu, a 2018 batch officer of Tripura cadre, Basharat Qayoom of 2016 batch from Ganderbal (Kashmir) of Jharkhand cadre and Rahul Pandey and Krittika Jyotsna of 2015 batch from Uttar Pradesh cadre.
Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Dr Jitendra Singh, Incharge DoPT told the Excelsior that the clause of minimum nine years of service for the IAS officers for inter-cadre deputation has been relaxed for five officers posted in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The officers posted on inter-cadre deputation were given choice. Those who have applied for posting in Jammu and Kashmir have been given relaxation in the Policy, which is discretion of the DoPT. The relaxation is one-time,” Dr Jitendra Singh said.
Three IAS officers, whose inter-cadre deputation has been approved for three years, are Basharat Qayoom, Akshay Labroo and Athar Aamir Ul Shafi Khan. However, the inter-cadre deputation of Rahul Pandey and Krittika Jyotsna will be for a period of two years.
Sources confirmed that some more officers especially the natives of Jammu and Kashmir were in line for posting in Jammu and Kashmir.
During past few years, a number of youths had qualified for IAS from Jammu and Kashmir but majority of them couldn’t get home State/UT due to less number of available posts and they were allotted cadre of other States. The freshers, according to sources, will be delighted by the Government decision as they will get a chance to serve in their home UT.
Even in current batch of IAS for which allocation of cadre was recently done by the DoPT, the natives of Jammu and Kashmir have been allotted Telangana, West Bengal, Gujarat cadre etc. Only a female Civil Services qualifier from Ladakh was allotted AGMUT cadre and she might get posting in Jammu and Kashmir. Rest of those allocated AGMUT cadre hailed from other States and Union Territories.
And reasons for very few vacancies of the All India Services in Jammu and Kashmir have been attributed to delay in conducting Cadre Review by the previous Governments especially the PDP-BJP headed by Mehbooba Mufti despite four reminders by Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Dr Jitendra Singh, Incharge DoPT.