State Cadre for IAS, IPS and IFS cancelled, zonal divisions introduced

The Central Government has introduced a new cadre system to protect national integration in administrative services. According to the new system, the Statewise cadre has been cancelled and zonal wise cadre has been introduced. Hence, in future all IAS, IPS and IFS officers have to chose zonal cadre instead of statewise options, reported Kannada Prabha.

Until now, officers were being appointed based on a state or group of states. After furnishing certain eligibility criteria, they could be absorbed into Central services. In the new cadre system, 26 states have been divided into 5 zones. The candidate can select one state/cadre as his or her first choice. The second, third, fourth and fifth option has to be from other zones.

This necessitates officers from serving in states other than their origin.  For instance if a candidate selects Bihar as his or her first choice the second choice has to be in south zone or North Eastern zone.  According to the new policy the candidate has to specify his or her choice of zone at the time of writing the examination itself.  However, based on the merit, vacancy statewise cadre will also be considered.

In the Zone One there are 7 cadres consisting Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, Central Administrative regions, Jammu - Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana. In Zone Two Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha. Zone Three has Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Zone Four has West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam - Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura and Nagaland. Zone Five has Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

• IAS IPS IFS now have new Zonal Cadres
• Karnataka