Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh. (File Photo)
Seeking to tackle shortage of IAS and IPS officers in the north-east, the Centre has decided to post officers from other services to the region.
"Central Service and Central Secretariat Service officers who are willing to work in the north-east may be posted on non-cadre posts in the secretariat of the states," said a draft policy finalised by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
Besides, the officers of all-India services --Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS) -- belonging to the north-east cadre may be allowed to shift to one of the cadres in the regions except their home state, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram which are part of the union territories cadre, it said.
The DoPT has decided to relax the existing guidelines to allow officers from other cadres to work in the north-east on inter-cadre deputation.
"It is proposed that eligibility service for inter-cadre deputation may be fixed as seven years of service. The entire period of inter-cadre deputation should be finished by 25 years of overall service of the officer.
"The maximum term of deputation including home deputation will be nine years instead of five years subject to availability of deficit in the cadre. The inter-cadre deputation may be availed in two or more spells," it said.
At present, one has to complete nine years of service to be eligible for inter-cadre deputation.
A woman all-India services officer belonging to a North East cadre is allowed to go on inter-cadre deputation after completion of six years of actual service in the north-east.
Such woman officer would also be eligible for deputation for a maximum of nine years instead of five years. "The same may be continued," the new policy proposes.
As per existing guidelines, if officers from outside cadres go on deputation to North East cadres, the conditionalities of cooling off would be waived, provided the person completes a term of deputation of at least five years.
In other words, an officer from any cadre would be allowed to go on deputation to the north-east directly after a full period of central deputation without cooling off.
The DoPT has decided that existing guidelines regarding cooling off period with regard to inter-cadre deputation to the north-east cadres may be continued.
All ministries have been asked to send their comments on this new policy by March 15.