Discontinuation of govt job interviews

Centre to hold workshop on Oct 29

New Delhi: A first-of-its-kind workshop will be held by the Centre for senior officials of state governments next week to discuss "no-interview requirement" for recruitment process of government jobs.

The workshop, to be held on October 29, will be conducted by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for the Principal Secretaries (General Administration Department or Personnel) of all state governments and union territories.

The move comes two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in this year's Independence Day address suggested removal of interview from selection process for government jobs.

During the workshop DoPT and a few central government agencies would present their experience and success stories on the 'no interview requirement' proposal and its implementation, a communication sent to chief secretaries of all state governments by the Centre said.

Some of the state governments and Union Territories will also be required to make a ten-minute presentation on their responses, success stories and difficulties experienced while considering or implementing the 'no interview requirement' proposal, it said.

A Committee of Secretaries has recently with the approval of competent authority decided to discontinue interview for the junior level posts.

The DoPT has already written to chief secretaries of state governments and union territories to consider discontinuation of interviews while doing recruitments for junior level posts.

"Several states have already taken initiatives undertake exercise for identifying posts where interview can be discontinued," the communique said.

Earlier this month, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions had also written to chief ministers of all states requesting them to take similar action achieving the objectives of citizen centric transparent governance.