Facing mounting financial stress and shrinking fiscal space, the Himachal Pradesh Government has approached the Centre seeking a reduction in the cadre strength of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers in a move aimed at curbing expenditure on the higher bureaucracy.
The Department of Personnel has formally proposed that the IAS cadre strength in the state be reduced from the existing 153 to 147, while the number of IFS officers be brought down sharply from 114 to 83. If approved, the move would result in a reduction of 37 senior officers from the two services combined. Sources said a similar exercise is also under consideration for trimming the IPS cadre in the state.
The proposal marks a significant administrative reform initiative as Himachal grapples with an escalating debt burden of over Rs 1 lakh crore and rising committed liabilities on salaries, pensions and establishment expenses. Successive governments had earlier contemplated rationalising the cadre strength of all-India services officers, but no concrete decision could be implemented.
Officials said the present government has now decided to pursue the issue seriously in view of the worsening financial position of the state. The annual expenditure incurred on an IAS, IPS or IFS officer — including salary, staff, official vehicles, accommodation and other perks — is estimated to be around Rs 50 lakh. Reducing the cadre strength, the government believes, would help save substantial resources that could instead be diverted towards development projects and welfare schemes.
“The exercise is part of administrative reforms and restructuring intended to ensure better governance within the available resources of the state,” said a senior official. He added that the move was not merely about reducing expenditure but also about improving administrative efficiency by restructuring departments according to actual field requirements.
The Forest Department has particularly been cited as an example where the existing structure is considered top-heavy, with a disproportionately high number of senior officers compared to lower-level field staff. Officials believe that strengthening the grassroots workforce would yield better forest management outcomes than maintaining a larger senior cadre.
The state’s fragile finances have worsened after the discontinuation of the Revenue Deficit Grant (RDG) by the Centre, which earlier provided Himachal nearly Rs 8,000 crore annually. The withdrawal of the grant has significantly tightened the state’s finances and forced the government to curtail its annual budget for 2026-27 compared to the previous year, an unusual development in Himachal’s fiscal history.
With limited avenues for revenue generation and an annual committed liability of nearly Rs 28,000 crore towards salaries and pensions, the state government is now aggressively exploring ways to reduce what it terms “non-essential expenditure” without affecting governance and public service delivery.
