As many as 1,300 posts of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and 505 belonging to the Indian Police Service (IPS) are lying vacant, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
Of the total of 6,877 sanctioned posts of the IAS, there are 5,577 officers in position, Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said in a written reply.
There are 4,594 IPS officers in position, as against their sanctioned strength of 5,099, he said.
Singh explained that IAS posts are filled according to the reservation guidelines issued by the government.
“Since 2012, a total of 180 candidates have been recruited to the IAS through the civil services examination each year, with 4 per cent of these seats reserved for candidates with benchmark disabilities (PwBD),” he said.
He added that the process of allocating candidates through the civil services examination (CSE), conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), is ongoing and continuous.
Vacancies are regularly assessed, and all advertised IAS vacancies are filled while considering the reservation norms, Singh added.
Currently, there are no backlog vacancies in the Indian Administrative Service. Additionally, there are no backlog reserved posts in the Indian Police Service as of January 1, 2025, Singh added.
The minister noted that over the past five years, 245 candidates from the Other Backward Classes (OBC), 135 from Scheduled Castes (SC), and 67 from Scheduled Tribes (ST) have been appointed to the IAS.
Similarly, 255 individuals from the OBC, 141 from SC, and 71 from ST have been appointed to the IPS during the same period (CSE 2020 to CSE 2024).
In a separate reply, the minister said that there are currently 1,029 vacant posts for Indian Forest Service (IFoS) officers, with a sanctioned strength of 3,193.
“Recruitment is a continuous process, and vacancies in these services are filled on a year-to-year basis considering the administrative requirements across the states as well as promotion prospects and career growth available to the officers,” the minister added.
Singh also mentioned that detailed information regarding sanctioned posts, personnel in position, and vacancies in various ministries and departments of the Union government is available in the annual reports of the Pay Research Unit, Department of Expenditure, which are publicly accessible.
“Maintenance of detailed information regarding vacancies is the responsibility of the respective cadre controlling authorities/ ministries/departments,” he said in a separate response.
Singh was asked whether the government has conducted any preliminary study regarding estimated positions sanctioned, in position and vacancies across all central government ministries and departments.
The occurrence and filling-up of vacant posts in various ministries/ departments is a continuous process, he said, adding that instructions have been issued from time to time to ministries/departments for the filling of vacant posts in a time-bound manner. Vacancies in the Union government have been addressed in a mission-mode approach, with several lakh appointment letters distributed to recommended or selected candidates during the national Rozgar Mela events held since October 2022.