State govt may merge Staff Selection and state Public Service Commissions

The Bengal government is likely to merge West Bengal Staff Selection Commission (WBSSC) with Public Service Commission (PSC), West Bengal and the decision may be finalised in the state Cabinet meeting on Monday.

A state secretariat source indicated that the decision was taken for cost curtailment and better utilisation of manpower. It may also be mentioned that the state Finance department recently asked for a merger of 20 state undertakings and restructuring of 46 public sector undertakings.

WBSSC controls the recruitment of Group B and Group C staff for different departments of Bengal government. The West Bengal Staff Selection Commission Act, 2011 enabled the commission to directly recruit in prescribed categories of post and services in government establishments.

The West Bengal staff selection commission was set up in 2012 for recruitment. The government did not appoint any chairmen for SSC after former chairman K S Rajendra Kumar's tenure was completed.

After this proposed merger, the recruitment to all government jobs, except group D, would be done through the PSC.

The West Bengal Group D Recruitment Board was set up in 2015 for recruiting around 50,000 group D staff in phases. Process was started for recruiting 6,000 group D staffs in the first phase.

It may be mentioned that the WBSSC app became widely popular. Within the launching of the app, some eight months ago, around 10,000 downloads were done from the Google Play Store. The

commission will also work to simplify the app in the future. There is no such clear indication about the future of the WBSSC app through which students can apply for the examinations.

A source in the state secretariat indicated that a brand new PSC app is being planned for helping out job aspirants. "Cost curtailment or working with short manpower is a problem. I am sure, PSC will look after the issue more accurately," the source added.