Madhya Pradesh is facing a crisis of governance due to a shortage of more than 156 IAS officers at present. This huge shortage is emerging as a major handicap for the administrative efficiency of the state. Its impact is telling, as many officials are facing immense work pressure due to having to handle multiple departments.
Though the state has an authorised cadre strength of 459 IAS officers, it currently has only 391 officers working in the state cadre. Around 50 of these officers frequently serve on central deputation at any given time. It reduces the working strength to about 341. To further complicate the situation, 38 IAS officers are currently deputed as poll observers for assembly polls in five states: West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, and Tamil Nadu. They would return only after polls are concluded in May. Thus, the effective strength further comes down to only 303.
This means the MP these days is short of over 156 officers from its authorised strength of 459.
Officials point out that giving charge of multiple departments to one officer results in reduced focus on work as well as leaves the possibility of ignorance and irregularity at the ground level.
However, MP does not rank as the state most severely affected by the shortage of IAS officers. In terms of total authorised strength and the number of officers in position, MP is the fifth lowest in the country.
According to the data from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), UP is facing a shortage of 81 IAS officers, West Bengal of 75 officers, Maharashtra of 76 IAS, and Kerala of 74 IAS officers. However, the DoPT says that the allocation of candidates through the Civil Services Examination, conducted by the UPSC, is an ongoing and continuous process, and vacancies are regularly assessed, and all the advertised vacancies of IAS are filled.
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