New cadre to exclusively handle land revenue

Dispur appoints 58 officers under the newly-created Assam Land Revenue Service

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, Oct 17: In a major move aimed at streamlining the land revenue administration, the Assam government has created a new cadre of officials christened Assam Land Revenue Service (ALRS). Officials under this cadre will exclusively handle the subject of land revenue hitherto looked after Assam Civil Services (ACS) cadre officials.

Altogether 58 officers under the new cadre were appointed on Tuesday after their selection by the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) and their appointment process is in the fil stage. After their month-long training, the new officers will be appointed as Circle Officers (Attached) and the highest position they will hold upon promotion will be Additiol Deputy Commissioner.

As land revenue is a huge subject, Dispur decided to create a separate cadre instead of relying exclusively on ACS cadre officials. This will considerably ease the pressure on the ACS cadre officials, who will now be able to take up various Personnel Department responsibilities. While the initial move was made by the erstwhile Tarun Gogoi government, the current dispensation has filly executed it.

The total effective strength under the new cadre is 175 and appointments will be made in phases. While 58 have been appointed, the APSC is presently conducting interviews for appointments for another 60 posts under ALRS.

Meanwhile, the Personnel department also appointed 29 new officers under the ACS cadre on Tuesday, after their selection by the APSC.

The APSC is also conducting interviews for another 95 positions under the ACS cadre. The current strength of the cadre is 958, while the number of men in position as in September-end is 772. There is thus a shortfall of 186 positions currently.

The appointment of 125 candidates – 29 of which have been appointed and interview for another 95 positions is currently only – is expected to considerably reduce manpower shortage in the Personnel department.

On the other hand, in another major development, the government has also decided to give appointments to the new ACS recruits as Assistant Commissioners in various districts and sub-divisions after their training is over. Earlier, the first post the ACS recruits held was Extra Assistant Commissioner.