CM Pinarayi Vijayan for expanding coverage for Kerala Administrative Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wanting wider coverage for the Kerala Administrative Service (KAS) by including more posts from different departments, the Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department (P and ARD) is currently collecting information from various sources, including the Public Service Commission. Sources said the chief minister, who examined the draft proposals and modalities presented by the committee headed by the chief secretary, was not satisfied with the number of departments and coverage recommended by the panel.

Subsequently, the chief minister’s office had asked P and ARD to collect further details on expanding the KAS coverage. Sources said the P and ARD is likely to submit the report to the chief minister within a week. The draft will be taken up for consultations with the service organisations again before it is finalised. It will be placed before the cabinet for approval. The Assembly subject committee on service rules will examine the draft before the issuance of notification and the draft rules will also be intimated to the Assembly. Sources said going by the present pace of work, the state should have an exclusive KAS cadre in place by June 2018.

While the government is in favour of having at least 300 officers’ posts under the state civil service cadre, the number proposed by the panel is less. Moreover, the government also has reservations regarding the posts of certain departments that have been brought under the KAS. The chief minister has already made it clear that the KAS would be implemented at any cost. He has pointed out that international-level training would be imparted to the employees.