Shortage of IAS officers in Jammu & Kashmir cited a reason for scraping the J&K cadre of All India Services to bring the officers of All India Services of erstwhile J&K cadre into AGMUT cadre was just an abortive attempt of the central government to defend a miscalculated decision on management of civil administration in Jammu & Kashmir as otherwise better management of KAS cadre would surely resolve the issue of availability of All India Service Officers in Jammu & Kashmir like several states of the country. While KAS officers are inducted into IAS only 8-10 years before their retirement in Jammu & Kashmir due to very severe flaws in the promotion system of the Jammu & Kashmir Combined Civil Services cadres, the state service officers in other states of the country are inducted into IAS almost 15-20 years before their retirement due to a robust system of promotions as a result of which such states don’t suffer from the crisis of the shortage of IAS officers. Had the government after the downgrading of the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state to a union territory instead of merging erstwhile J&K cadre into AGMUT cadre introduced some changes in the promotion system of the KAS and other feeding services of J&K combined services to make the system of promotions more robust , the crisis of the shortage of IAS officers won’t have become an issue of questions and explanations for the central government within and outside the parliament. People raising questions over the posting of KAS officers as deputy commissioners are not unfortunately looking at the administrative nomenclature pursued by the popular governments of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state for more than six decades now. Forget about the posting of KAS officers as district development commissioners in Jammu & Kashmir, they have even held the position of administrative secretaries in past and some KAS officers even now are holding the position of administrative secretaries and a couple of them are likely to retire in the rank and scale of Principal Secretaries.
A better management of the KAS cadre by a more robust system of promotions but not it’s encroachment by the officers of AGMUT cadre and an immediate divorce to placement of non IAS and non KAS cadre officers on IAS cadre and KAS cadre positions could do away with the crisis of shortage All India Service Officers in Jammu & Kashmir.
The questionable question about the mismanagement of the civil administration irking IAS officers in Jammu & Kashmir is the posting of even Indian Forest Service Officers as administrative secretaries. No one questioned the posting of an IFS officer as Secretary School Education few months ago as otherwise question can be asked what an Indian Forest Service Officer is supposed to know about school education department. People would have been glad to have any educationist of repute as administrative secretary school education instead of an IAS officer. For the last more than three years the government is not touching two local IAS officers holding the charge of Rural Development and Health and Medical Education departments as if they have been appointed on a contract as Secretary Rural Development and Secretary Health & Medical Education. Through AGMUT cadre the civil administration in Jammu & Kashmir is facing the crisis of the encroachment due to shifting of more non local officers to Jammu & Kashmir who are not acquainted well with local atmosphere. A better management of the KAS cadre by a more robust system of promotions but not it’s encroachment by the officers of AGMUT cadre and an immediate divorce to placement of non IAS and non KAS cadre officers on IAS cadre and KAS cadre positions could do away with the crisis of shortage All India Service Officers in Jammu & Kashmir.
