File Photo: Central Secretariat
A process to do away with job interviews in posts of various central government ministries has been started by the Centre, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said in New Delhi today.
He said a communique has been sent to all state governments, state public service commission and Staff Selection Commission to identify posts where interviews can be discontinued.
The move comes a fortnight after Prime Minister Narendra Modi put forward such a suggestion during his Independence Day address to the nation.
Mr Singh, Minister of State for Personnel, reiterated the Prime Minister's claim that interviews sometimes lead to "manipulation, maneuverability and corruption".
"Therefore, barring such posts where an interview would help in testing special capabilities for a particular assignment; abolition of the provision of interview will not only be in larger public interest but would also offer a level playing field, even for those candidates who are resourceless and belong to lower socio-economic strata," he said.
Presiding over a meeting of Principal Secretaries of General Administration or Personnel department from different states and union territories, Mr Singh said the government will soon identify all those posts, particularly at junior level like Group III and IV, where an interview is avoidable and will stop this practice.
Referring to some of the decisions taken by the Personnel Ministry during the last 15 months of the present government, Mr Singh made a special mention of the introduction of self-attestation of certificates.
This, he said, not only eliminated inconvenience caused to the youth for going around to seek attestation of certificates from gazetted officers, etc, but also sent out a reassuring message that the present government has the capacity to trust the youth of this country.
Similarly, he also referred to plans of finalising a pension portal which would help in ending the practice of producing life certificates by a pensioner.
A pilot exercise undertaken for three states of Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu had proven successful wherein, for the first time, an induction training programme was introduced for the newly inducted state-level functionaries. The same practice is now being extended to other states as well, Mr Singh said.
He also described as a landmark decision by the Personnel Ministry to "revise and revisit" the pattern and syllabus of civil services exam to offer a level playing opportunity for aspirants from different streams.
Today's meeting was attended among others by Secretary Personnel Sanjay Kothari, Secretary Administrative Reforms Devendra Chaudhry and Establishment Officer Rajiv Kumar.