New Delhi: States have been asked to expedite the process to abolish wherever possible interviews for selection in government jobs, Union minister Jitendra Singh said on Monday.
Addressing a day-long workshop of Principal Secretaries of General Administration or Personnel Departments from different states, he said soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement to this effect on Independence Day from the ramparts of Red Fort, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had fixed for itself the deadline of December 31, 2015 to abolish the practice of conducting interview for appointment to Group 'B' and 'C' posts in various ministries.
Singh, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, said that he had written letters to chief ministers of all the states in September requesting them to take a lead in carrying forward this initiative.
"While some of the states have already made a big headway in this exercise, there are other states which seem to be slow in response, but were expected to take the matter seriously and on fast track," he said.
Singh has asked the state governments to expedite the process of abolition of interviews for recruitment to all such government jobs where it is not essential, a press release issued by Personnel Ministry quoted the minister as having said.
In his letter to the chief ministers, he has also requested involvement of Public Service Commissions and other recruiting agencies in their respective states to identify the posts for which interview can be discontinued.
The objective behind the abolition of interview for appointments where it is not required was to ensure more objective selection in a transparent manner without causing disadvantage to poor or resourceless aspirants, Singh said.
This is one of the several path-breaking decisions taken by DoPT during last 17 months, which also include the abolition of attestation of certificates with introduction of self-attestation and the decision to revisit the pattern and syllabus of civil services examination, he said.
