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18/08/24 11:11 AM IST

UPSC issues ad for lateral entry into bureaucracy

In News
  • The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)  issued an advertisement seeking applications for “talented and motivated Indian nationals for Lateral Recruitment” to the posts of Joint Secretary, Director, and Deputy Secretary in 24 ministries of the Union government.
Lateral Entry
  • In 2017, NITI Aayog, in its three-year Action Agenda, and the Sectoral Group of Secretaries (SGoS) on Governance in its report submitted in February, recommended the induction of personnel at middle and senior management levels in the central government.
  • These ‘lateral entrants’ would be part of the central secretariat which, till then, had only career bureaucrats from the All India Services/ Central Civil Services.
  • They would be given contracts of three years, extendable to a total term of of five years.
  • Based on the above recommendation, the first vacancies for lateral entrants were advertised in 2018, but only for Joint Secretary level positions. Posts of the rank of Director and Deputy Secretary were opened later.
  • A Joint Secretary, appointed by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), has the third-highest rank (after Secretary and Additional Secretary) in a Department, and functions as the administrative head of a wing in the Department.
  • Directors are one rank below Joint Secretaries, and Deputy Secretaries are one rank below Directors, although in most ministries, they perform the same job.
Significance
  • The lateral recruitment is aimed at achieving the twin objectives of bringing in fresh talent as well as augment the availability of manpower.
  • Keeping in view their specialized knowledge and expertise in the domain area, lateral recruitment at the level of Joint Secretary, Director and Deputy Secretary in Government of India, has been undertaken to appoint persons for specific assignments.
  • Basically, the idea behind lateral recruitment is for the government to tap into individuals’ domain expertise and specialised know-how, regardless of whether they are career bureaucrats or not.
Criticism
  • Lateral entries have been criticised on the grounds that there are no quotas for Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) candidates in such recruitment.
  • The lateral entries were a “part of a well-planned conspiracy” and that “the BJP is deliberately making such recruitments in jobs so that SC, ST, OBC categories can be kept away from reservation”.
  • In respect of appointments to Central Government posts and services there shall be reservation for Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe/Other Backward Class candidates in temporary appointments which are to last for 45 days or more.
  • This was a reiteration — with OBCs added — of a circular issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs as far back as September 24, 1968.
  • In effect, reservations have to be offered for any appointment in the bureaucracy.
  • Reservation in public jobs and universities is implemented via what is known as the “13-point roster”. According to this policy, a candidate’s position on a roster of openings is determined by dividing the quota percentage of their group (SC, ST, OBC, and now EWS) by a hundred.
  • For example, the OBC quota is 27%. Therefore, OBC candidates are recruited to every 4th post for which a vacancy arises in a department/cadre (100/27=3.7).
  • Likewise, SC candidates, with 15% reservation, are supposed to fill every 7th vacancy (100/15=6.66), ST candidates, with 7.5% reservation, are supposed to fill every 14th vacancy (100/7.5=13.33), and EWS candidates, with 10% reservation, are supposed to fill every 10th vacancy (100/10=10).
Source- Indian Express

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