IAS lobby angry as IFS fills in plum positions

A shortage of IAS officers is proving to be a boon for Indian Forest Service officials in Chhattisgarh.

A shortage of IAS officers is proving to be a boon for Indian Forest Service (IFS) officials in Chhattisgarh. IFS officials are being diverted to manage tourism, state Public Service Commission, Housing Board and various other public administration duties generally reserved for the IAS cadre.

This is despite the fact that there is a shortage of IFS officials too in the state. As against a sanctioned cadre strength of about 120, the service has just 100 officials, with 21 of these officials being deputed to other departments and administrative positions.

But the plum postings to IFS officers hasn’t gone down well with the IAS lobby. A senior official said, recently, the appointment of K Subramanyam, an IFS officer, as the Chhattisgarh Home Secretary created a rift among the two services forcing the government to withdraw the decision.

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“All services should perform the job mandated to them. Dealing with law and order is a specialised service, since from the lower ranked magistrate to Home Secretary, an IAS is graduated with the experience of dealing with various situations.

An Indian Forest Service officer, on the other hand has no experience of handling any law and order situation,” a senior official said. IFS officers counter this argument by saying that performance should be the only criteria to decide an officer’s posting.

When questioned, Chief Minister Raman Singh said: “We have a shortage of IAS officers in the state. Against the sanctioned strength of about 140 IAS officials, the state has less than 100 of these officials because of which the state government has been forced to appoint IFS officers to administrative postings.”

The chief minister pointed out that Indian Forest Services officers have been working in various fields and the state government it has been decided to use their experience in the overall development of Chhattisgarh.