Govt increases KAS strength to 552 senior duty posts

The cadre strength of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service has been increased by the state government from the existing 408 senior duty posts to 552.
The State Administrative Council (SAC) which met here under the chairmanship of Governor N N Vohra today approved the proposal submitted by the General Administration Department (GAD) to increase the cadre strength of the Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service from the existing 408 senior duty posts to 552, an official spokesman said.
The KAS rules provide for a periodic review of the cadre of KAS, to be carried out after every five years, he said.

He said with this increase, the functional requirement of the different departments would be satisfactorily met which will help in providing good governance besides providing adequate career progression prospects to the State Civil Services Officers and the officers of different departments for their induction into KAS.
He said that recognising the importance of training being provided to KAS officers, the SAC directed that a well defined framework should be devised for the in-service, mid-career training of KAS officers on the same pattern as the training programmes in vogue for the IAS officers, which should be mandatorily linked to their promotions to various levels.

An amount of Rs one crore was also sanctioned to meet the training requirements of the KAS cadre officers, to begin with.
Besides, 69 training reserve posts were created at the junior-scale level of KAS, he said.