Cabinet decision: State SSC merged with Public Service Commission

The state government has decided to merge the West Bengal Staff Selection Commission (WBSSC) with the Public Service Commission (PSC). The final decision in this regard has been taken in the Cabinet meeting held on Monday. With the merger, PSC will be conducting all the recruitment examinations for Group B and Group C employees as well. In 2012, the state government had set up the WBSSC in a bid to accelerate the recruitment process of the two groups. It was found that despite setting up WBSSC, the recruitment process was getting delayed for different reasons.

IAS officer K S Rajendra Kumar was appointed as the chairman of the selection commission and no one was further posted in the position after his tenure ended on April 30. It had given an indication that the state government might take a decision to merge the WBSSC with PSC. On Monday, it has been finally decided to merge the selection commission with the constitutional body PSC that would also help in curtailing the expense that the state government had been bearing after setting up the WBSSC.

The process of recruitment of Group D employees will be undertaken by the West Bengal Group D Recruitment Board. The board was set up in 2015 when the state government had decided to recruit 50,000 group D staff. The decision was taken to recruit them in phases.

According to a senior state government official, the decision to merge WBSSC with PSC will also ensure proper utilisation of manpower as many officials were engaged with the functions of the WBSSC. Thus, the same manpower could be now used in PSC. The official said that the step will be beneficial to job aspirants and considering it the state government has taken the decision of merging WBSSC with PSC.