The Union Ministry of Personnel recently provided data on the total number of officers in position as well as the number of vacancies in the three All India Services—the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Indian Police Service (IPS), and the Indian Forest Service (IFoS)—against the sanctioned strengths of officers in the three categories. The data was provided by the Minister of State for Personnel, Jitendra Singh, in reply to a written question in the Rajya Sabha on February 12.
But what the central government avoided answering in its reply was a question about the number and representation of Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the All India services at present.
What has turned out is that the Union Govt virtually provided the number of direct recruits from these categories in the last four years to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), and Indian Forest Service (IFoS).
Singh, in his reply, provided the total number of IAS, IPS, and IFS officers in position as well as the total number of direct recruits in the SC, ST and OBC categories from 2020 to 2024.
It was in response to a written question asked by CPI (M) MP John Brittas, who sought to know the number of sanctioned posts in each of the All India Services as of date; the number of officers currently in position in each of these services, service-wise and cadre-wise; the number and representation of SC, ST, and OBC in these services, service-wise and category-wise, as of date; and the number of vacancies in these services, service-wise and category-wise, as of date.
The minister informed the Parliament that the country is facing an acute crunch of civil servants, with 2834 posts in the IAS, IPS, and IFoS currently lying vacant.
Singh said that as per the Civil List compiled on January 1, 2025, there are 1,300 vacancies in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), 505 in the Indian Police Service (IPS), and 1,029 in the Indian Forest Service (IFoS).
According to the data, the IAS cadre alone has a vacancy rate of about 18.9 percent, with 1,300 posts vacant out of a sanctioned strength of 6,877. The IPS has around 9.9 percent vacancies, with 505 unfilled against 5,099 sanctioned posts.
The situation about the IFoS is the worst, with 1,029 vacancies out of 3,193 sanctioned posts—translating into a vacancy rate of approximately 32.2 percent.
Overall, a total of 2,834 posts across the three All India Services are vacant out of a combined sanctioned strength of 15,169, reflecting an overall vacancy rate of nearly 18.7 percent.
The total authorised strength of IAS officers across cadres is 6,877, against which 5,577 officers are currently working. Similarly, only 4,594 IPS officers are serving the country against a sanctioned strength of 5,099, while in the IFoS, only 2,164 officers are in service against 3,193 sanctioned posts.
Cadre-wise data placed in the reply shows that Uttar Pradesh, which has the highest authorised strength of 652 IAS posts, has 571 officers in position. In Madhya Pradesh, 391 IAS officers are in place against a sanctioned strength of 459, while Maharashtra has 359 officers against 435 sanctioned posts.
States like Bihar, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu jointly top the list of shortfalls of IPS officers between authorised strength and officers in position. The IFoS has seen particularly high vacancies, with several states reporting sizeable gaps between sanctioned and filled posts.
The minister also elaborated on data, saying that during the last five years (Civil Services Examination 2020 to 2024), a total of 245 OBC, 135 SC, and 67 ST candidates were appointed to the IAS through direct recruitment. In the IPS, 255 OBC, 141 SC, and 71 ST candidates were appointed, while in the IFoS, 231 OBC, 95 SC, and 48 ST candidates joined during the same period.
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