P Chidambaram blames NDA government for shortage of IAS and IPS officers

NEW DELHI: Blaming the "misconceived" policy of the previous (NDA) government for shortage of IAS and IPS officers across the country, Home Minister P Chidambaram today said that steps are being taken to recruit more number of officers in both categories to "make up" for the problem.

The top two All India Services - IAS and IPS - are facing a shortage of over 3000 officers across the country.

Without naming NDA, Home Minister P Chidambaram today said, "there is already a shortage of IAS officers because of the misconceived policy of recruiting fewer than the required numbers both to the IAS-IPS that was followed some time ago. I won't get into the details".

He said that he has corrected the anomaly regarding the IPS, which falls under his jurisdiction.

"On IPS side I have corrected it. We are now recruiting 150 people this year," he said.

The Home Minister said that even for IAS it is being corrected but he was not aware of the the exact number of people who will be recruited this year.

"Therefore, by this enhanced number of recruitment, we can make up for the part of the problem, though it will not solve the problem entirely," the Home Minister said.

Asked whether there was any provision for lateral entry into the IAS, Chidambaram said he does not know about it but it has already been announced for the IPS.

"IPS, yes I have announced...there will be a lateral entry of about 80 people every year for the next seven to 10 years. I do not know about IAS," he said.

The practise of recruiting lesser number of IAS and IPS officers during the NDA rule is considered one of the main reasons for the huge backlog in vacancies in the IAS and IPS categories in all states.

While the Indian Police Service (IPS) is short of 1,327 officers, the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) faces shortage of 1,777 officers.