The career growth prospects among Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) officers in Karnataka is “very bleak” as only 56.8% of KAS officers are promoted to the IAS cadre, as against 93% of the same cadre officers in neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
The percentage of officers of State Civil Service Officers (SCS)/KAS promoted and working in IAS positions in Karnataka is very less compared to Tamil Nadu (93%), Uttar Pradesh (86.4%), Maharashtra (84.9%), Himachal Pradesh (84.8%), Andhra Pradesh (84.7%), Sikkim (78.6%), Gujarat (78.9%), Rajasthan (75.8%), and Punjab (70%). Karnataka ranked at the bottom of the table along with Odisha and Assam (both 50% each), revealed a new research conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru.
Limited over 10 years
The KAS officers’ promotional opportunities have got limited over the last 10 years. Karnataka stood among the States with least marginal increment in the sanctioned IAS positions given to KAS, and a decline in the actual number of KAS officers promoted to IAS from 64 in 2011 to 54 in 2021, it said.
The study “Understanding State civil service environs in a comparative perspective”, sponsored by Karnataka Administrative Services Officers Association (KASOA) and conducted by professors K. Gayithri, R.S. Deshpande, and Khalil Shaha, noted that Karnataka was in a disadvantageous position compared to different States and all-India services, both with regard to the number of officers, promotion policies, policies towards incentives, awards, evaluation of performance, and recognition during service.
“There is serious discontent that KAS officers after reaching suppertime scale have little chance to get to IAS as most of them would have already crossed the maximum age allowed for promotion to IAS that is fixed at 54 years long ago,” the study noted. “The frustration of KAS officers not getting to IAS can be solved by allowing them for promotion after two years of training to higher scales at the interval of every five years of their services,” it added.
The researchers suggested that there should be a cadre review of KAS to review cadre strength at all grades to take care of promotion issues of KAS officers. Despite accepting the recommendation of Hota Committee (2013), both the State and KPSC have not been holding regular recruitments for KAS officers, which led to huge vacancies, they said.
Shortage of officers
There was a shortage officers in the range 52% to 100% at the level of super time scale and senior super time scale (particularly since 2018), said the study, leading to resentment. Despite a quantum leap in the delivery of services to be rendered by junior-level officers, the number of sanctioned posts remained stagnant. The junior level of administration continued to suffer due to high levels of shortage/vacancies up to 51% during the last decade, the study noted.
Besides the shortage of KAS officers, the strength of IAS officers in the State has not been revised upwards despite incremental growth in the number of districts and the schemes. Irregularity in recruitments and non-availability of KAS officers has compelled the DPAR to place officers from other departments in the positions which should have been occupied by the KAS officers. “This practice is rampant, and the problem begins at recruitment as well as career growth,” it noted.
Several anomalies continued to erode the morale and efficiency of the KAS officers with regard to selection process, transparency, promotions, cadre management, training and evaluation and monitoring, the study noted.
The research study, conducted with structured interviews with senior administrators and experienced KAS officers and State Administrative Officers from the other states, suggested to the Karnataka government to conduct interviews at three or four different centres spread across the state.
“The panel of examiners should be drawn from the best academics and administrative officers. In Maharashtra, the interviews are conducted at four different places and the panels conducting the interview are totally different in each place. Experts drawn from among senior government officers and academicians formed the interview panel, it said.
It suggested that there is a need to revisit Cadre and Recruitment rules every three years and a clear cut promotion policy.
