Dr Jitendra Singh writes to Chief Ministers to abolish interview for recruitment

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh has appealed the Chief Ministers of all the States to take steps to abolish interview for recruitment to lower posts wherever possible. Dr. Jitendra Singh has written to the Chief Ministers requesting them to lead this initiative in their respective States.

As a prompt follow up to the suggestion made by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi during his Independence Day address to abolish interview for recruitment to such posts where it is not required, the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) took up the matter with the State Governments of all States on September 4, 2015 following which the matter was discussed with the Secretaries of General Administration Department (GAD)/Personnel from States during the two-day workshop held in New Delhi on September 8-9, 2015.

The government’s view is that the interviews should be discontinued for recruitment to junior level posts where personality or skill assessment is not absolutely required. The objective behind abolition of interviews for such posts is that it will curb corruption, ensure more objective selection in a transparent manner and substantially ease the problems of the poor and resourceless aspirants. This will not only enable giving more weightage to the merit but also supplement the government’s resolve for “Maximum Governance, Minimum Government”.

In the letter addressed to the Chief Ministers, the Dr Jitendra Singh has informed that several Group 'B' (Non-Gazetted) and Group 'C' (Non-Technical) posts in various Ministries/Departments and other organisations under Central Government have already been identified where the selections can be made through a competitive examination without conducting the interview. The letter further states that the matter was discussed with the Secretaries of GAD/Personnel from States during the two-day workshop held last month and some of the States have already initiated this exercise.

The Chief Ministers of different States have been requested to involve the Public Service Commission and other recruiting agencies in their respective States where interview can be discontinued and selection can be done only through examination. This would be a major step towards achieving the goal of citizen-centric transparent governance.

The DoPT and the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DAR&PG) and the Department of Pensions and Pensioners Welfare have recently undertaken several path breaking decisions including abolition of attestation of certificates and instead introduced self-attestation of certificates, introduction of pension portal to abolish the requirement for a written life-certificate and decision to revisit and revise the pattern and syllabus of Civil Services Examination.

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Interactive Awareness Programme Under Pensioners’ Portal to be held in Ahmedabad tomorrow

The Department of Pension and Pensioners Welfare, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions is implementing a web-based Mission Mode Project on pensions namely Pensioner’s Portal under the National e-Governance Plan. The Department has also started initiative called SANKALP for channelizing the experience and skill of Pensioners towards meaningful social activities.

The Department will conduct the next Interactive Awareness Programme for Pensioners in Ahmedabad at Ahmedabad Medical Association, AMA House, Opp H.K.Arts College, Ashram Road tomorrow at 10 AM.

The basic objective of the project is to facilitate redressal of Pensioners’ Grievances as also to provide information and guidance to pensioners on various pension and retirement related matters. User Ministries/Departments, Pensioners, Banks, Controller General of Accounts (CGA), Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO), Post Offices etc. are the stakeholders in this venture aimed at welfare of the Pensioners.

With a view to providing knowhow about the operational aspects of this Portal and the Grievances Redressal Mechanism in particular, the Department of Pensions is conducting Awareness Programmes at different locations in the country. So far such programmes have been conducted at Chandigarh, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Pune, Lucknow, Thiruvanthapuram, Kolkata, Jallandhar, Vadodara, Shillong, Agartala and Kohima for Pensioners/Pensioners’ Association who are major stakeholders.