New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government is all set to initiate the second round of lateral entry recruitments, ThePrint has learnt.
According to sources in the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), 40 posts for lateral entry have already been identified at the level of director and deputy secretary, and an advertisement in this regard will be released soon.
The recruitment is likely to be carried out by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) just as it was done in the case of joint secretary-level recruits who were appointed in eight ministries earlier this year.
“This time, the process would be more streamlined because the government now has experience in how to go about it,” an official said.
“From the advertisement to the application process to the training of the lateral recruits and other formalities — there is experience within the government now…This time, we expect the process not to take a very long time.”
Like in the case of the eight joint secretaries , the government is unlikely to reserve posts for SC/ST/OBC communities in the latest round of recruitment as well. “Recruitment in the lateral entry is done for individual posts on contract, so reservation does not apply,” the official said.
Among the joint secretaries, while no SC/ST/OBC candidates were selected, the only woman candidate picked by the UPSC declined to take the offer.
The recruitments through lateral entry are expected to serve the twin purpose of promoting domain expertise in the government and to address the shortage of IAS officers.
According to government data, the number of officers appointed on central deputation has been falling since 2014. In 2018-19, only 153 IAS officers were appointed on central deputation under Central Staffing Scheme (CSS) as opposed to 247 during 2016-17, 320 in 2015-16 and 340 in 2014-15.
The lateral entry scheme
Last year, when the Modi government had first announced its lateral entry scheme, it was proposed that a committee headed by the cabinet secretary will carry out the recruitment process. However, after questions were raised within and outside the government regarding the objectivity of these recruitments, the task was handed over to the UPSC.
In 2017, the NITI Aayog and a Committee of Secretaries (CoS) had recommended inducting 40 individuals into the government at the level of joint secretary, director and deputy secretary in order to address the huge shortage of officers in the middle management level.
Subsequently, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) was asked to prepare an outline of modalities.
In July, Minister of State Jitendra Singh informed the Lok Sabha that on the basis of the recommendations of the CoS and the NITI Aayog, the government would appoint 40 non-government domain experts as director and deputy secretary. However, no final decision has been taken in the matter, Singh had said.
The DoPT has now finalised and started that process.
Also read: Modi govt to recruit 40 more domain experts in second push for lateral entry