Abolish interview for low level govt jobs: Centre to states

New Delhi, Apr 22: All state governments have been asked to abolish interview as part of selection process for low level government jobs, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said today.

He was addressing a meeting of Principal Secretaries of General Administration Department (GAD) from different states and union territories here.

Singh, Minister of State for Personnel, also asked state governments to expedite the process of abolition of interview for selection to such posts where it is not required.

This follows suggestion from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the abolition of interviews during his last year's Independence Day address from the ramparts of Red Fort.

The Department of Personnel and Training promptly followed the PM's call by completing this exercise before December 31, 2015 and ensured that beginning this year the practise of conducting interview is discontinued for selection to non-gazetted and junior posts in the central ministries.

"However, the provision of skill test was allowed for such posts where a special skill was required, but this skill test was also of qualifying nature," a press release issued by Personnel Ministry said.

Singh regretted that many of the states have yet to make a satisfactory headway in this direction.

He said, since today's meeting was being attended by GAD Secretaries from most of the states ranging from Jammu and Kashmir to Kerala, it is expected that the officers will go back to their respective states with the message to carry forward this initiative in right earnest.

Citing the example of states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, which has made significant progress in abolishing interviews, Singh advised the Secretaries of other states also to try to understand and replicate the same in their respective states.

He also noted that the provision of self-attestation was adopted by certain states very late and exhorted the state governments to follow the initiative of preparing a single page form for different applications.

PTI