States across India have shortage of bureaucrats

Data accessed by ETV Bharat shows that India is facing a shortage of IAS officers in almost all the states and Kerala is leading in the list of states facing a severe officer crunch.

New Delhi: India is facing a severe shortage of policymakers both at the Centre and the states.

Data accessed by ETV Bharat shows that Kerala is leading in the list of states facing a severe officer crunch.

Against the total authorised strength of 231, this southern state has 160 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer presently in position.

The data shows there are 181 officers against the sanctioned strength of 249 officers in Andhra Pradesh.

Bihar has a total strength of 250 IAS officers against the sanctioned strength of 342.

West Bengal has 297 IAS officers to run the state Government at present against the actual strength of 378.

Official sources said that government has taken several steps to fill up the vacant posts of bureaucrats.

"Officers in position as on January 1 this year is 5205 against the authorised strength of 6699," said the sources.

However, in order to address the issue of shortage of IAS in regular recruitment quota, the government has increased annual intake of IAS officers from 55 in civil service examination (CSE) 1998 to 180 from CSE 2013 in respect of IAS.

Of late, the Centre has also opted for lateral entry process.

"In promotion quota, prompt actions have been taken for holding selection committee meetings for appointment by promotion and selection of State Service officers to IAS," sources added.