New Delhi: More than four months after the Centre took a U-turn on bringing in lateral entrants in senior and mid-level positions in the bureaucracy following an uproar by the opposition over the lack of reservations, the scheme to recruit private sector specialists in government departments is not likely to be brought back any time soon, ThePrint has learnt.
Sources in the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said the lateral entry scheme will be overhauled completely as it was felt that after its launch in 2018, it has failed to attract the desired talent.
Besides, there is no clarity yet on whether reservation should be introduced under the scheme, the sources added.
“We are having discussions in the ministry (of personnel, public grievances and pensions) on ways to revamp the scheme so that we can get good talent from the private sector. In recent years, there have been more applicants from Public Sector Undertaking (PSUs) than domain specialists from the industry. Many of those from PSUs apply because they want a posting in Delhi,” said a DoPT source.
When the lateral entry scheme was first introduced in 2018, the government had invited applications for 10 positions of joint secretary, for a period of three years, which was extendable to five years. Of the ten people appointed, only nine joined. One left midway and another left after completing three years. The tenure of seven was extended beyond three years.
Since then, the government has undertaken the recruitment drive four times but the response to the scheme has wavered. In 2021, some 40 posts were opened for lateral hiring; the majority of them were of director and deputy secretary.
Responding to a question in the Lok Sabha on 12 December last year, Jitendra Singh, junior minister in the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions under which the DoPT comes, said that 63 appointments have been made at the level of joint secretary, director and deputy secretary on contract/deputation basis in various government departments since 2018.
The DoPT source also said there was a need to relook at the emoluments being offered to lateral entrants. “The salaries that are offered to lateral entrants need to be re-examined,” the source said.
A DoPT official who did not want to be named said that currently, those recruited to the post of joint secretary are put in the same pay bracket of Rs 1.44 lakh to Rs 2.18 lakh that a joint secretary in the Government of India gets. “Salary in the private sector for such senior-level management positions is way higher,” the official said.
It was in August last year that the Union Public Service Commission sought applications for lateral entry to 45 posts of joint secretary, director and deputy secretary across 24 ministries of the government–the largest recruitment drive since 2018.
Following a political backlash from the opposition Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal and some of its own allies, including the Janata Dal (United) and Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas), the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre withdrew the advertisement.
Currently, the government’s reservation policy does not apply to the lateral entry scheme because the hirings are for a single-post cadre.
“It’s not possible to have reservation in the lateral entry scheme in the present format,” the DoPT source said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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