Centre revises Cadre allocation Policy for IAS, IPS and IFS officers
Kuljinder Sra
New Delhi/Chandigarh, January 25, 2026: Centre Government has revised Cadre allocation policey for IAS, IPS and IFS officers and it has redefined four groups A, B, C and D instead of earlier Zone I, II, III, IV and V which existed before. New groups have been formed on the basis of alphabetical order. Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has issued notification in this regard.
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The new framework, issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) last week after consultations with state governments, replaces the cadre allocation system that had been in force since 2017.
The revised policy does not apply to the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), which does not have a state cadre. IFS officers will continue to be managed as a single Central service by the Ministry of External Affairs, with no change in their selection, training or posting procedures.
A key feature of the new policy is the replacement of the earlier zonal system with a four-group alphabetical structure. According to the DoPT, the move is aimed at ensuring a fairer, simpler and more transparent cadre allocation process.
Under the new arrangement, all state and joint cadres have been alphabetically arranged and divided into four groups:
- Group I: AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh–Goa–Mizoram and Union Territories), Andhra Pradesh, Assam–Meghalaya, Bihar and Chhattisgarh
- Group II: Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh
- Group III: Maharashtra, Manipur, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu
- Group IV: Telangana, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal
This replaces the earlier five-zone structure that grouped cadres region-wise across the country.
Another major shift is in the way merit is applied during allocation. Instead of relying largely on overall all-India rank, the new system places candidates into blocks of 25 ranks. Cadre vacancies are also distributed across these blocks.
This means that a candidate’s position within a 25-rank block may now be as significant as their absolute rank, a change aimed at more even distribution of officers across cadres and ranks.
Under the revised guidelines, cadre-controlling authorities will determine vacancies annually:
- DoPT for IAS
- Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for IPS
- Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) for IFoS
Vacancies will be allocated across categories including Unreserved (UR), Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC), following the prescribed roster system.
Officials said the revised policy seeks to reduce regional imbalance, improve predictability and transparency, and strengthen the spirit of national integration by ensuring a more equitable spread of officers across states.