Shillong, Mar 14 (PTI) The Meghalaya government has been pursuing with the Centre for creation of a separate Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre for the state so that it can get more such officers, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma informed the Assembly on Monday. Replying to a query of Congress member Ampareen Lyngdoh, Sangma said that he had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month urging him to consider approving a proposal to have a separate IAS cadre for the North-eastern state. "Since the North East Reorganisation Amendment Act, 2012 divided the Manipur-Tripura cadre, we have been pushing for this and we are still pursuing this matter. If this happens, we will have more cadre strength than what we have right now," he said. Meghalaya is facing a huge deficit of IAS officers. There are only 41 IAS officers - 23 direct recruits and 18 promoted - while the state"s sanctioned strength is 77 besides five who are on central deputation. The chief minister said that compared to many other states in the region, the cadre strength of Meghalaya is less. "For example, the IAS cadre strength in Manipur is 110; it is 102 in Tripura and 91 in Nagaland," Sangma said. That is the reason the state government has opposed the amendment to IAS (Cadre) rules proposed by the Centre in January, he said. The Union government has proposed an amendment to IAS (Cadre) rules, which would enable it to post IAS officers on central deputation, bypassing reservations of state governments. When Trinamool Congress legislator Charles Pyngrope asked if officers who are not from the civil service can be promoted for use of their service to address the issue, Sangma said that it is a very technical suggestion and he has taken note of it. NCP member Saleng A Sangma questioned whether the government is contemplating providing better facilities to IAS aspirants in the state. The chief minister then replied that the government started a coaching institute for IAS aspirants in 2019. PTI JOP NN NN