Abolish interview for low-level govt jobs: Centre to states

All state governments have been asked to abolish interview as part of selection process for low-level government jobs, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Friday. He was addressing a meeting of Principal Secretaries of General Administration Department (GAD) from different states and union territories here.

Singh, MoS for Personnel, also asked the state governments to expedite the process of abolition of interview for selection to such posts, where it is not required.

This follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s suggestion on the abolition of interviews during his last year’s Independence Day address from the ramparts of the Red Fort.

The Department of Personnel and Training promptly followed the PM’s call by completing this exercise before December 31, 2015, and ensured that beginning this year the practice of conducting interview is discontinued for selection to non-gazetted and junior posts in the central ministries.

“However, the provision of skill test was allowed for such posts, where a special skill was required, but this skill test was also of qualifying nature,” said a release issued by the Ministry.

However, Singh regretted that many states were yet to make a satisfactory headway in this direction.

He said: “Since today’s meeting has been attended by GAD Secretaries from most of the states from Jammu and Kashmir to Kerala, it is expected that the officers will go back to their respective states with the message to carry forward this initiative in right earnest.”

Citing the example of states such as Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, which have made a significant progress in abolishing interviews, Singh advised the Secretaries to also try, understand and replicate the same in their respective states.

He also noted that the provision of self-attestation was adopted by certain states very late and exhorted the state governments to follow the initiative of preparing a single-page form for different applications.