Govt to make recruitments in all Boards, Corporations through HPSSSB now

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 3

To ensure that people have full faith in impartial and transparent recruitment process, the government will henceforth make recruitments in all Boards and Corporations through the Himachal Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Board (HPSSSB).

“We have decided that in future all appointments will be made through the HPSSSB so that there is no element of doubt in anybody’s mind about the impartiality and fairness of the recruitment process,” Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said here today.

He said this might result in the process of recruitment becoming very lengthy, but this had become necessary to instil confidence about the fairness of the selection process.

“During the BJP regime, the administration was totally derailed as it was a government of the BJP, by the BJP and for the BJP. Today we are back to the old traditions and are ensuring that all appointments are being done impartially,” he said.

He said the government had succeeded in restoring the confidence of the people in the selection process, but the decision had been taken to make it even more transparent.

In fact 19 Congress ministers and MLAs had written a letter to the CM last week, urging him to cancel the written examination held for the post of conductors in the Himachal Pradesh Transport Corporation (HRTC).

They had requested that the entrance examination be cancelled as there were doubts of alleged irregularities in the process.

Though all appointments in various government departments were made through the State Public Service Commission and the HPSSSB, the Boards and Corporation generally make recruitments at their own level. This involves holding of a written screening examination followed by an interview.

Reacting to the 24-point document released by Satpal Satti on the two-year rule of the government, the CM said he did not expect such cheap propaganda from a person who happens to be the BJP president.

“The Congress is committed to implement its election manifesto and will be done in letter and spirit during the entire five-year term,” he said.

Virbhadra said the Congress would not just implement the manifesto, but will do much more over and above.

“However, the document released by Satti is totally wrong, politically motivated and misleading,” he said.

He said a committee headed by Irrigation and Public Health Minister Vidya Stokes had been constituted earlier to monitor the implementation of the election manifesto. Its other two members include Agriculture Minister Sujan Singh Pathainia and Industries Minister Mukesh Agnihotri.

Virbhadra said he had always stood and fought for one Himachal, irrespective of region, caste and religion.

“The Congress does not believe in regionalism and casteism as propagated by the BJP which came out with a document despite the government itself releasing complete details of the work it has done in the past two years,” he said.