Northern states are reeling under the shortage of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) officers, while Kerala is leading the vacancy rate in the country.Data submitted in Parliament on Wednesday show even though there is no backlog in the reserved category posts across the two services, the overall shortage in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab is 18.6 per cent for the IAS and 15.59 per cent for the IPS officers.The combined shortfall touches 24 percent if Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and the AGMUT cadre (which includes Delhi) is factored in as 482 posts of IAS and IPS are lying vacant here against a sanctioned strength of 2,010.The government further informed the Lok Sabha that 180 IAS officers are recruited annually with 4 per cent reservation for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities. It has attributed vacancies to retirements, expanding governance needs and cadre restructuring across states.According to the data presented by Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in the PMO, Kerala, AGMUT and Himachal Pradesh are the top three regions in the country with the highest vacancy rate for IAS officers.Kerala has the highest vacancy rate of IAS officers with 74 IAS posts lying vacant against the sanctioned strength of 231 (amounting to 32 per cent vacancy).The AGMUT cadre ranks second with 136 vacancies against 542 sanctioned posts (25.1 per cent); while HP is third, with 36 of 153 IAS posts lying vacant (23.5 per cent).Nationally, 5,577 IAS officers are posted against 6,877 sanctioned posts, leading to a vacancy rate of 18.9 percent. Similarly, 4,594 IPS officers are currently serving across India against the total sanctioned posts of 5,099, amounting to a vacancy of 9.9 per cent.In Haryana, there are 172 IAS officers against sanctioned strength of 215, leaving 43 vacancies (20 per cent); and 127 IPS officers against 144 sanctioned posts, leaving 17 vacancies (11.8 per cent). Overall, 60 of the 359 sanctioned posts are lying vacant in Haryana, translating to a combined vacancy of 16.7 per cent.In Punjab, 33 of 231 posts are vacant (14.3 per cent) while 34 of 172 IPS posts are lying vacant (19.8 per cent). Thus, Punjab has a total shortfall of 67 officers against a sanctioned strength of 403, amounting to 16.6 per cent vacancy rate.Himachal Pradesh is the worst-affected among all northern states. The state only has 117 IAS officers against a sanctioned strength of 153; and 84 IPS officers against the sanctioned strength of 96.This translates into IAS vacancy rate of 23.5 per cent and IPS vacancy rate of 12.5 per cent for Himachal. Overall, the state has reported 48 vacancies against 249 sanctioned positions, leading to 19.3 per cent vacancy rate.Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and AGMUT (including Delhi) together have 2,010 sanctioned IAS and IPS posts and only 1,528 officers, leading to 482 vacancies.No backlog in quota postsMinister of State in PMO Jitendra Singh said there were no backlog vacancies in the reserved IAS or IPS posts and recruitment was done strictly as per reservation guidelines of the UPSC.Between 2020 and 2024, IAS saw the induction of 245 OBC, 135 SC and 67 ST candidates, while IPS saw 255 OBC, 141 SC and 71 ST candidates, indicating continued compliance with reservation norms.