All India Services Cadre Allocation Policy 2017

DoPT has released a new All India Services Cadre Allocation Policy 2017 for IAS, IPS, and IFoS. To strike a balance between choice and maintaining the spirit of All India Services, the Government drafted the new policy. According to the new cadre policy, the states are divided into 5 Zones as under

• Zone I: AGMUT, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Haryana
• Zone II: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha
• Zone III: Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh
• Zone IV: West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, and Nagaland
• Zone V: Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala

In the past, a candidate can choose any state. But it is not so now. Under the new policy, each candidate has to choose one state from each of the five zones. The second set of 5 states should be selected from each of the five zones. In this manner, states will be chosen from five zones.