The Union Government has increased the cadre strength of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers by allowing 11 more posts in a recent review of cadre. The Odisha Government would now have four posts in the apex scale of IAS Cadre as the Union Government has allowed one more post.
Till now, only Chief Secretary, Member of Board of Revenue, Chief Administrator KBK posts were in the Apex Scale, but with the new arrangement, the post of Development Commissioner-cum-ACS & Secretary to Planning and Convergence Department has also been allowed in this scale. With new order, four more posts can be created by the State Government making it to eight in the Additional Chief Secretary rank.
The cadre strength for IAS officers in Odisha has been increased to 248 from 237. Earlier, there were 11 posts in the Principal Secretary rank and now, it has been increased to 13. The Commissioner-cum-Secretary-rank posts were 39, which have been made 36. However, Secretary, Additional Secretary, Joint Secretary and Deputy Secretary posts in the IAS cadre have been increased from 20 to 24.
Cadre review is done in five years, but this time consultation between Centre and State Government took a longer period. The last cadre review was done in 2014.
