Govt to lower quota for local officers in IAS, IPS in J-K, ladakh

The Centre has decided to lower the quota from existing 50 per cent to 33 per cent for local officers from state services to IAS, IPS and IFoS in the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, officials said on Tuesday.

The Personnel Ministry has finalised all modalities in this regard and an official order is expected soon, they said.

The move followed the nullification of Article 370 in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir in August last year, the officials said.

Earlier norms allowed the former state to enjoy 50:50 formula for the three all India services -- the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS).

This means, 50 per cent of the total posts in these services were to be manned by those selected through direct recruitment mode, on the basis of civil services examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), and the rest 50 per cent posts were to be filled through the promotion of native officers belonging to state services to IAS, IPS and the IFoS, the officials said.

After Jammu and Kashmir state was reorganised into two union territories -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh -- it has lost its special quota provision, they said.

"Now, the pan-India rule of 67:33 (i.e. 67 per cent posts to be manned by directly recruited officers and the rest will be for those from the state services) will apply to both the union territories," an official explained, adding that the Personnel Ministry will soon come out with an order in this regard.

According to the Jammu and Kashmir reorganisation Act, 2019, the officers selected through the civil services examination will now get the AGMUT or Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territory cadre instead of Jammu and Kashmir.

Officers of the IAS, IPS and IFoS are allocated cadre that could either be a state/group of states or union territories.