Central deputation

The Centre has proposed amendments to the IAS (Cadre) Rules in order to exercise greater control in central deputation of IAS officials. Central deputation has often been at the centre of tussles between the Centre and the states.Central deputation in the Indian Administrative Service is covered under Rule-6 (1) of the IAS (Cadre) Rules-1954, inserted in May 1969.

What necessitated these amendments

• Various state/joint cadres are not sponsoring adequate numbers of officers for central deputation, as part of the Central Deputation Reserve. As a result of this, the number of officers available for central deputation is not sufficient to meet the requirement at Centre.

As per the rule

• A cadre officer may, with the concurrence of the State Governments concerned and the Central Government, be deputed for service under the Central Government or another State Government or under a company, association or body of individuals, whether incorporated or not, which is wholly or substantially owned or controlled by the Central Government or by another State Government.

What happens in case of disagreement

• In case of any disagreement, the matter shall be decided by the Central Government and the State Government or State Governments concerned shall give effect to the decision of the Central Government.
• However, existing rules did not mention any time limit for deciding on such disagreement.

 What are the proposed amendments

• The proposal will give greater say to the Centre.
• The amendments enable the Union government to seek the services of an Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS) officer posted in a State even without the State government’s consent.
• The Centre will be able to relieve an officer from their cadre if the State government does not give effect to the Central government’s decision within the specified time.
• In case of any disagreement, the matter shall be decided by the central government and the state government or state governments concerned shall give effect to the decision of the central government “within a specified time”.
• Services of an AIS officer with a specific domain expertise may be required for any important time-bound flagship programme or project.

 How many officers are working under deputation?

• Only 10% mid-level IAS officers were posted with the Union government in 2021, a sharp fall from 19% in 2014.
• The decrease in central deputation of IAS officers becomes even more stark as the total pool of such officers at this level expanded from 621 in 2014 to 1130 in 2021, an increase of around 80%.
• According to data available with the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the number of central deputation reserve of IAS officers has gone down from 309 in 2011 to 223.