Shortage of senior officials, Centre merges J-K cadre IAS, IPS, IFoS with AGMUT

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 8

The Centre has issued a notification merging the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) cadre of IPS, IAS and Indian Forest Service (IFoS) with the AGMUT (Arunachal, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories) cadre.

In bureaucratic circles, the move is being viewed as the government’s attempt to source senior administrative and police officers from a larger pool, as the newly carved out Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh have been witnessing an acute shortage of such officials.

According to the notification, which was signed by President Ram Nath Kovind and issued by Ministry of Law & Justice, the members of IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service for the existing J&K cadre will now become part of AGMUT cadre.

Now, the officers of the erstwhile J&K cadre can be posted to Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and any of the Union Territories (UTs).

In the notification, the President said, the Central government may bring in necessary modifications in the corresponding cadre allocation rules. It further said that the officers borne or allocated to AGMUT cadre shall function in accordance with the rules framed by the central government.

Sources in the government said recently the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had sent an SOS to various Ministries and Departments of the central government to send a list of senior officials, who are competent and willing to work in J&K. It was done in view of the shortage of officials as senior levels in the two newly carved out UTs, said a senior functionary of the MHA and went on to add that the latest move of merging cadre is also in the same direction.