SHILLONG, March 14: The government is pursuing with Centre for a separate IAS cadre for Meghalaya to address the shortage of IAS officers in the state.
Replying to a query from suspended Congress MLA Ampareen Lyngdoh, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said that he had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019, seeking a separate IAS cadre for the hill state.
“Since the North East Reorganisation Amendment Act, 2012 divided the Manipur-Tripura cadre, we have been pushing for this and we are still pursuing this matter. If this happens, we will have more cadre strength than what we have right now,” the chief minister informed.
Conrad also informed the House that the state government has opposed the amendment to IAS Cadre Rules communicated by the Centre in January.
“We have stated that we don’t agree with the proposed amendments,” the chief minister said.
Reacting to a query if Meghalaya has sufficient number of IAS officers, the chief minister said that out of the total cadre strength of 78, the state has 41 IAS officers out of which 23 are direct recruits while 18 others have been promoted.
He also informed by the chief minister that the cadre strength of Meghalaya is already less in comparison to other states like Manipur with 110, Tripura with 102 and Nagaland with 91.
Reacting to a query from suspended Congress MLA PT Sawkmie, Conrad said that 18 MCS officers have been promoted to the rank of IAS till date.
The chief minister also informed that the post of a deputy commissioner is always occupied by an IAS officer while an MCS officer is sometimes temporarily posted as the DC for some districts.
Gambegre MLA Saleng Sangma, on the other hand, said, “There is no good coaching centre in Meghalaya and Deputy Commissioners are non-tribals. Our people should be IAS officers.”
To this, the chief minister replied that in 2019, the government had started satellite-based online coaching and ALS is being providing the same.
In addition, Meghalaya Administrative Training Institute is also conducting coaching for IAS aspirants, he added. (With agency inputs)