The Union government has evaded a question in the Rajya Sabha on the number and representation of Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Classes(OBC) in the All India services at present.
Instead, in its reply, the government has provided the number of direct recruits from these categories in the last four years to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers.
The data given to the Rajya Sabha on February 12, by minister of state (independent charge) for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh that of the total authorised strength of 15,169 of IAS, IPS and IFS there are 2,834 vacancies (18.6%).
In his written question, Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) MP John Brittas sought to know the number of sanctioned posts in each of the All India Services, as on 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, OBC in these services, service-wise and category wise as on date as well as the number of vacancies in these services, service-wise and category-wise, as on date.
In response, Singh in his written 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 2020-2024.
According to his reply, at present there are a total of 5577 IAS officers while there are 4594 IPS and 2164 IFS officers.
Between 2020 to 2024, the total number of officers through direct recruitment in the IAS from SC, ST and OBC communities are 135, 67, and 245 respectively. In the IPS 141, 71 and 231 are from SC, ST and OBC communities respectively. In the IFS on the other hand, 95, 48 and 231 are from SC, ST and OBC communities respectively.
While Singh has given data of the number of direct recruits from SC, ST, OBC between 2020-2024 and the total number of IAS, IPS and IFS officers at present, he has not provided data of the number of general category officers recruited in this period, or the total number of category-wise officers in these services at present.
Singh has also informed parliament in his written reply that of the total authorised strength of the IAS of 6877, about 18.9% posts have not been filled with 1300 vacancies. In the IPS, against the total authorised strength of 5099, 9.9% posts have not been filled with 505 vacancies. The IFS has the highest share of vacancies of 32.2% with a total authorised strength of 3193 and 1029 posts lying vacant.