Do away with job interview for junior posts: Centre to CMs

NEW DELHI: Chief Ministers of all states have been asked to do away with the practice of interviews for identified junior-level posts to curb corruption and substantially ease the problems of the poor and resourceless aspirants.

Union Minister for Personnel Jitendra Singh has written a letter to all chief ministers in this regard asking them to identify such posts from where the process of interview can be abolished.

The move comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had put forward such a suggestion during his Independence Day address to the nation this year.

As a prompt follow-up to the Prime Minister's suggestion, the Personnel Ministry had earlier sent a communication to chief secretaries of all states. Now, Singh has written separate letters to all the chief ministers requesting them to lead this initiative in their respective states.

"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," said Singh, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.

This will not only enable giving more weightage to merit but also supplement the government's resolve for 'maximum governance, minimum government', he said.

In the letter, Singh has informed that several Group 'B' (Non-Gazetted) and Group 'C' (Non-Technical) in various ministries and other organisations under central government have already been identified where the selections can be made through a competitive examination without interview.

Chief Ministers 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 Minister said.

The Ministry had in past 16 months undertaken several "path-breaking" decisions including abolition of attestation of certificates and instead introduced self-attestation, introduction of a 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, he said.