Interview for Group-B (non-gazetted) and Group-C posts in Central government jobs has been abolished in 23 states and eight Union Territories (UTs) so far -- an exercise that started with effect from January 1, 2016.
All the eight UTs of India, including newly created Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, are among the regions along with 23 out of the 28 states of the country have so far followed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call which he made from the rampart of the Red Fort on the occasion of Independence Day on August 15, 2015.
It is among some of the path-breaking reforms brought by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), a statement from the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions said quoting Union Minister Jitendra Singh.
Singh recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had suggested in 2015 the abolition of the interview and making job selection totally on the basis of written test, because "whenever an interview call was received by a candidate, his entire family would get disturbed with apprehension and anxiety".
On a quick follow-up to the Prime Minister's advice, the minister said, the DoPT undertook an expeditious exercise and within three months completed the entire process to announce the abolition of interview for recruitment in Central Government with effect from January 1, 2016.
However, Singh said that while some states like Maharashtra and Gujarat were quick to implement this rule, there were other states which were quite reluctant to abolish the conduct of interview for Central government jobs.
"After quite a bit of persuasion and repeated reminders to certain state governments, today the practice of conducting interview stands discontinued in all the eight Union Territories of India, including Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, and 23 out of the 28 states of the country," the minister said.
Officers in the DoPT mentioned that the new exercise will end the complaints, grievances and allegations about marks in interviews being manipulated to help certain favoured candidates.
Earlier, there had often been complaints of written test merit being compromised by lowering the interview marks of the candidate in order to help certain candidates for dubious considerations. There were also allegations of the job for money or heavy amounts being paid to secure jobs by manipulating the interview marks.
The move to abolish the interview process and consider only the written test marks as a merit for selection offers a level-playing field to all the candidates, a DoPT official told IANS requesting anonymity.
As per the calculation of the different state exchequers, the official said, the initiative reported heavy savings in addition to bringing in transparency and objectivity in the recruitment process.
He said a substantial expenditure was being incurred in conducting interviews of candidates whose numbers often ran in thousands and the interview process continued for several days together.
