Study on for creating separate IAS, IPS cadre for Mizoram: DoNER minister

Union minister Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said he had directed the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to undertake an exercise to study the implications and feasibility of creating a separate cadre for all India service officers like the IAS and IPS for Mizoram.

This was conveyed to Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga by Singh, Union Minister for the Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER), when the former called on him here.

The chief minister took up with the DoNER minister the request to have a separate IAS or civil services cadre for Mizoram, which is presently part of the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories, excluding the Andaman and Nicobar Islands) cadre. In response, Singh said he had asked the DoPT to undertake an exercise to study the implications and feasibility of the request, an official release said.

The minister also conveyed that two more Union territories -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh -- were also going to become a part of the AGMUT cadre.

Zoramthanga also took up the issue of 10 per cent financial assistance through non-exempt ministries with Singh and urged for some mechanism for dispensing the unspent balance.

Singh informed Zoramthanga that he had already taken up the issue with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who had assured him that she would look into this and find a way out.

The Union minister also informed the Mizoram chief minister that he had put some feasible options before the finance minister to address the issue.

Singh also expressed satisfaction over the recently-established "Citrus Fruit Park" in Mizoram's Lingoi, set up in collaboration with Israel, which was perhaps the first-of-its-kind in the Indian subcontinent.