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Journalism of Courage
The Union Service Public Commission Saturday sought applications for lateral entry from private sector, state/UT government and PSU employees for 45 posts of Joint Secretary, Director and Deputy Secretary across 24 Central ministries which will be filled on contract basis by September 17.
The total vacancies of 10 joint secretaries include joint secretary digital economy, FinTech, Cyber Security and investment in Finance Ministry and joint secretary (policy and plan) in the NDMA under MHA, among others.
Among the posts advertised are director/deputy secretaries for natural farming, organic farming and water management in the Agriculture Ministry; for digital media in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry; and for advanced chemical cell (ACC) battery manufacturing for the automobile sector in the Heavy Industries Ministry.
Appointment to the posts will be on a contract basis for a period of three years, extendable to five years depending upon performance, and central government employees are not eligible for the posts, the advertisement said.
Applicants for the post of joint secretary need a minimum of 15 years of experience and must be aged between 40 and 55. The gross salary for a lateral entry joint secretary will be approximately `2.32 lakh a month, it said.
Similarly, director and deputy secretary candidates need a minimum of 10 and 7 years of experience, respectively and must be in the age limit of 35 to 45 and 32 to 40, respectively.
Following the advertisement, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said in a post in Hindi on X that “under a well-planned conspiracy, the BJP is deliberately making such recruitments in jobs so that SC, ST, OBC classes can be kept away from reservation.”
Asking if there was any reservation for the SC, ST, OBC and EWS reservation in these posts, he said, “The BJP has ripped apart the Constitution and launched a double attack on reservation”, and claimed that the “reservation scam” in the appointment of assistant teachers in Uttar Pradesh has now been exposed by a decision of HC.
He was referring to the Allahabad High Court order directing that a revised list of 69,000 assistant teachers in Uttar Pradesh selected through the Assistant Teachers Recruitment Examination (ATRE) 2019 be prepared, rectifying the irregularities committed in fixing the quota for their appointment.
The court has set aside the selection lists issued in June 2020 and January 2022, which included 6,800 candidates.
The lateral recruitment — referred to as appointment of private sector specialists in government departments — began in 2018 after NITI Aayog and the Sectoral Group of Secretaries on Governance recommended it in its report in 2017.
“Keeping in view their specialised knowledge and expertise in the domain area, lateral recruitment at the level of Joint Secretary, Director and Deputy Secretary in Government of India, has been undertaken to appoint persons for specific assignments. So far 63 appointments have been made through lateral entry at the level of Joint Secretary, Director and Deputy Secretary during the last 5 years. Presently 57 officers are in positions in Ministries/ Departments,” Jitendra Singh, MoS for Personnel, had told the Rajya Sabha on August 8.
