J&K holds two round of meetings with Comm, final in April
Almost all queries answered, years of allotment decided
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Mar 26: In a good news for Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Services (JKAS) officers especially those belonging to 1999 batch, the Union Territory administration has successfully conducted two round of talks with the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) and the final round is expected in the month of April on induction of 41 JKAS officers into the Indian Administrative Services (IAS), a long pending issue of the local cadre officers.
However, official sources told the Excelsior that the UPSC hasn’t agreed to induction of all 41 JKAS officers into IAS in one go but approved the proposal in three phases which will take some time for all eligible officers (as per the available posts) to get tag of the All India Services cadre.
“The UPSC during two round of preliminary meetings with top officers of Jammu and Kashmir administration has agreed to induction of 41 JKAS officers into IAS as there were vacancies available for them but expressed hesitations over inductions of such large number of officers in one go,” sources said.
The General Administration Department (GAD) has been forcefully presenting case of the JKAS officers for their induction into the IAS which has been pending for more than a decade.
“The UPSC has stated that it will be inducting 15-16 JKAS officers into IAS at first instance followed by 12-13 in second phase and 11-12 in third and final go,” sources said, adding that nod to induction of 15-16 JKAS officers into IAS is expected by the end of April when third and final meeting will be convened by the UPSC.
Years of allotment will be decided along with inductions. However, an exercise to this effect has been conducted.
The UPSC, as per the sources, has raised number of queries pertaining to the inductions, majority of which have been replied by the administration while rest are in the process of being responded to.
After all queries are addressed, the Jammu and Kashmir administration will seek final meeting with the UPSC for induction of JKAS officers into IAS.
The UT administration was anticipating induction of all 41 JKAS officers into IAS in one go as there were clear vacancies available which have been identified also. However, the UPSC didn’t agree to the proposal and split inductions into three phases.
Sources said the JKAS officers who will be inducted into the IAS, will get AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram Union Territories) cadre as the Union Home Ministry had already merged erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir cadre into AGMUT as J&K was made a Union Territory on August 5, 2019.
As per the process, the GAD had identified vacancies and years of allotment of IAS to the JKAS officers. This process has been completed.
The 1999 batch of JKAS is likely to be the major beneficiary of inductions. However, at the same time, decks will be cleared for inductions of 2000 and 2001 batch of JKAS officers also at the later stage.
The 1999 JKAS batch of officers had to wait for 23 long years for their induction into the IAS, sources asserted and noted that in the process of wait some of the officers even completed their services and got retired. They added that the retirees will also be considered for induction into the IAS as they will get service benefits from the year they are inducted into the All India Services.
Once the process of inductions of previous years is completed, the Government proposed to make it a regular feature every year so that the JKAS officers are timely inducted into the IAS like other States and Union Territories and not after 15 or 16 years as is the case presently in Jammu and Kashmir.
Besides benefiting the JKAS officers, their induction into IAS will also help the Jammu and Kashmir Government to overcome shortage of IAS officers in the Union Territory. It may be mentioned here that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has deployed several officers of All India Services on two to three years deputation in the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh due to shortage of the AIS officers.
“The shortage will definitely be overcome with the proposed induction of JKAS officers into IAS,’’ sources said.
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