By IANS
New Delhi : Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have the largest number of women in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS) as compared to other states, the Lok Sabha was informed Wednesday.
Uttar Pradesh has 53 women IAS officers, while Madhya Pradesh has 50, followed by Maharashtra with 44, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Suresh Pachouri told the house in reply to a question by members Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy and Subhash Maharia.
Pachouri said while Nagaland has only three women IAS officers, Jammu and Kashmir has a mere six.
Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh were leading in the number of women IPS officers as well with 13 in each state.
Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and the AGMUT cadre (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories) stand at second place with 12 women IAS officers each. Incidentally, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa face a serious threat from Maoist rebels.
Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim are at the bottom of the list with only two IPS officers each.
The total number of women IAS officers in the country is 591, while the figure for IPS is 165, the minister said.
Pachauri added that an additional 15 women IPS officers of the 2006 batch were awaiting allotment of cadre.
There are 92 women in the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), he told the house.
The minister clarified that at present there was no proposal to prioritise recruitment of women to IAS, IPS and IFS.