Interviews for Class III, IV posts scrapped under PMO ‘pressure’

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 21

The state government’s decision to scrap interviews for non-gazetted Class III and IV posts is set to usher in a transparent recruitment regime.

The decision taken at a Cabinet meeting recently seems to be an offshoot of pressure from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). “Since nearly 20 states and union territories have already scrapped interviews for these posts, Haryana had no option but also to do it. The decision will go a long way in merit-based selection in government jobs,” says a senior BJP functionary.

Earlier, there were differences within the Council of Ministers over the issue with some ministers supporting it to bring transparency in job selections, while others felt that candidates from rural areas would be put to a disadvantage vis-à-vis their urban counterparts.

However, the decision will put the BJP on the moral high ground against its political opponents—the Congress and the INLD—as the previous regimes had the dubious distinction of several of their job selections being scrapped by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In fact, former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala is cooling his heels in jail on the charges of large-scale irregularities in the recruitment of over 3,200 JBT teachers.

The Haryana Government fills thousands of Class III and IV posts every year and a majority of these are filled by the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC).

In 2015, The BJP government had capped the upper limit for interview weightage for recruitment to Class III posts at 10 per cent of the total marks in the written examination.

Earlier, the interview marks, at times, comprise up to 50 per cent weightage in the selection process and were awarded at the whims and fancies of members of the HSSC who were mostly political appointees.

Gazetted posts next?

The state government is mulling a proposal to urge the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) to devise a mechanism under which interview marks for Class I and II posts does not exceed 10 per cent of the total marks in the written examination. Checking discretion in the interviews for the gazetted posts is high on the agenda of the government.