The vexatious issue of distribution of the 600 odd All-India Services officers of Andhra Pradesh cadre made a significant headway on Thursday when a meeting of Chief Secretary P.K. Mohanty in New Delhi with the Pratyush Sinha committee that was constituted to prepare the guidelines for the purpose, broadly decided to extend “limited options within the roster system” to the officials to join service in either State.
A top official told The Hindu over phone that a decision was taken to go for a mixture of options and roster to enable officials exercise their choice.
The allocation will not be predetermined but based on objectivity, transparency and equal opportunities. However, the preparation of the guidelines was left to the committee.
Sources said the guidelines might not be made public immediately as they have to be approved by the Prime Minister who heads the Department of Personnel and Training.
A separate nine-member committee at the State-level headed by Special Chief Secretary M. Samuel, which was supposed to assist the Pratyush Sinha panel, had suggested that the IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers of the State cadre be divided into groups of five each in their respective services and given options to serve in the State of their choice.
The groups should be further split on the basis of social status of the officers, comprising SC, ST, other Backward Classes and unreserved categories.
The groups of five can be within a batch of recruitment or a combination of two or three batches if five officers in a batch after considering social status were not available.
There are 295 IAS, 206 IPS and 127 IFS officers who have to be divided between the two States.
