Group C to HCS entry through test

Pradeep Sharma
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 14

The Haryana Government has put in place a new selection process for promotion of Group C staff to the Haryana Civil Services (HCS), which it claims will check nepotism.

The new “transparent” process involves a screening test and interview to be conducted by the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC).

Charges of nepotism and discretion were often levelled during the earlier process of nomination of Group C employees (called Register A-II entry) to the HCS. The oft-repeated grievance was that in the absence of a transparent procedure, personal staff and favourites of the ministers and senior bureaucrats were nominated.

Now, the HPSC will invite applications from the eligible candidates from various departments of the state government, through the heads, and conduct a written examination, which would include questions on science, current affairs, geography, polity and Haryana’s economy, besides elementary English. After the screening test, the commission would prepare a list of candidates three times the number of vacancies to be filled for the interview stage. The final selection would be made on the basis of the screening test, interview, annual confidential reports (ACRs), experience and performance of the candidates in their professional career, the sources stated.

The new recruitment system has been necessitated through the HCS (Executive Branch) Amendment Rules, 2018, notified recently. Earlier, the Haryana Cabinet had amended the HCS (Executive Branch) Rules, 2008, paving the way for the enactment of the new rules.