The Government of India has classified Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh Union Territories as “hard areas” in joint AGMUT cadre.
According to guidelines governing transfer and postings of AGMUT cadre IAS, IPS and IFS officers, the states and UTs are classified into two categories- regular areas and hard areas.
As per categorization done by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Chandigarh, Delhi, Dadra Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, Goa and Puducherry are regular areas while Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, Lakshadweep and Mizoram have been classified as hard areas.
The guidelines for officers posted in ‘Hard Areas’ mention special provisions for training abroad, elevation to the level of deputy secretary after completion of tenure in the area, and gradation incentives. A senior officer of MHA explained, “We have been planning to do this for quite some time now. The idea is to provide the officers serving in the area with special incentives of serving in the ‘Hard Areas’, category B. This move also ensures that the government will have an availability of a good number of IAS and IPS officers in the area.’’
It is worth mentioning that J&K had its own separate cadre for IAS, IPS and IFS before the abrogation of Article 370. In January 2020, the Centre promulgated an ordinance to merge the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) cadre of All India Services officers such as the IAS, IPS and the Indian Forest Service (IFoS) with the Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre.
