Delhi:The government has said no adverse effect on the morale of the civil servants has resulted from lateral recruitment.
Informing this to the MPs in the Lok Sabha , Union Minister of State (PMO, Personnel), said such appointments were made following a report of the Sectoral Group of Secretaries (SGoS).
SGoS submitted a report in February, 2017 in which it has inter-alia been observed that there is shortage of officers at the Joint Secretary/Director/Deputy Secretary level, due to reduction in recruitment in the Service during 1995-2002.
Based on the recommendation of SGoS, Government has decided to undertake lateral recruitment of ten Joint Secretaries on contract basis in order to achieve the twin objectives of bringing in fresh talent as well as augment the availability of manpower.
India’s policy think tank NITI Ayog in its three year Action Agenda 2017-18 to 2019-20 has also highlighted that it is essential that specialists be inducted in to the system through lateral entry on fixed term contract, Dr Singh asserted.
It is not that for the first time that doors for lateral entry at such level posting has been opened by the government. Some prominent persons have been appointed earlier also on lateral entry basis to man specific assignments from time to time.
This includes among others, appointment of Dr. Manmohan Singh, Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Mr Vijay Kelkar, Mr Bimal Jalan, Mr Shankar Acharya, Mr Rakesh Mohan, Mr Arvind Virmani, Mr Arvind Panagariya, Mr Arvind Subramanian, Mr Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Mr Parameswaran Iyer, Mr Ram Vinay Shahi, Mr R. Ramanan and Dr. Sekhar Bonu.
In keeping with the principle of ‘Reform, Perform and Transform’, the Government has also taken several measures to reform bureaucracy.
Issue of provisional appointment orders on receipt of duly filled attestation form and self declaration by candidates pending police verification of character and antecedents, streamlining the system of posting at senior levels with due regard to integrity and merit, strengthening performance appraisal system of civil servants, strengthening of vigilance system and amendment of All India Services (Disciplinary and Appeal) Rules to provide for specific ‘timeline’ for completing inquiry against officers of All India Service(AIS) in a time bound manner are some of the steps that the government has undertaken to streamline bureaucracy.
Adequate safeguard against arbitrary suspension of All India Service (AIS) officers, discontinuation of interviews for lower level posts, removing dead-wood from bureaucracy (i.e. those found ineffective and non-performing are to be compulsorily retired), are some of the reforms made in the recent past.
The entry in Government run educational cadre at Assistant/Associate/Professor is open to all individuals who are fulfilling the required eligibility criteria independent of whether the person is currently within the educational institution or not.
J P GUPTA for SG
