But at present Madhya Pradesh is facing significant shortage of IAS officers forcing many of them to handle multiple departments and raising concerns over administrative efficiency. The state currently has 391 IAS officers in position against the authorised cadre strength of 459 of which around 50 are on deputation with the Centre at any given time. This effectively reduces the working strength in the state to about 341. MP was not the worst hit in shortage of IAS officers. When it comes to total authorised strength of IAS and the number of IAS officers in position, MP was fifth lowest in the country. 

It is reduced further as 38 IAS officers are currently deputed as poll observers in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. They would not return before May 4, 2026. It brings down the number of IAS in MP to 303. This means the MP these days is short of over 150 officers from its authorised strength. The fallout of less than required number of officers is the existing set of officers have charge of multiple depts. Giving charge of multiple depts to one officer leads to reduced focus and leaving the possibility of ignorance and irregularity at the ground level.