Haryana: Administrative crisis facing Haryana government, shortage of IAS officers will become a big challenge.

Haryana News: Amidst the continuous shortage of IAS officers in Haryana, the new year 2026 may prove to be challenging from the administrative point of view. With the retirement of 13 senior IAS officers of the state in the year 2026, the work pressure on the bureaucracy is likely to increase further. This situation is becoming a matter of concern for the administration which is already facing shortage of officers.

The retiring officers also include Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi, who has been given a one-year extension. Apart from them, senior IAS Sudhir Rajpal, Additional Chief Secretary level Raja Shekhar Vundru and Arun Kumar Gupta, Abhilaksh Likhi working as Secretary in the Central Government and Principal Secretary level D. Suresh are also in the retirement list. Arun Kumar Gupta is currently holding the responsibility of Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister. Whereas 2005 batch IAS officer Ramesh Chandra Bidhan will retire on December 31.

A total of 225 posts of IAS cadre are sanctioned in the state, but at present only 183 officers are working. That means already 42 posts are vacant. Apart from this, 12 IAS officers are posted on deputation in the Central Government. Recently, Haryana has got 6 new IAS officers, but due to the large number of retirements taking place in 2026, this relief is considered insufficient.

The shortage of IAS officers is directly impacting the administrative work. Many senior officers have to handle additional charge of three to four departments simultaneously, which has increased the pressure on decision making and work execution. To deal with this situation, the government has deployed officers from IPS, IFS, IRS and other services on IAS posts.

Although the government has the option to fill the vacant posts of IAS by promoting qualified Haryana Civil Service (HCS) officers, many posts under promotion quota are also lying vacant at present. In such a situation, if concrete steps are not taken in time, then the administrative system of Haryana may have to face more challenges in the year 2026.