New Delhi (20.08.2024): The Centre was forced to cancel advertisements for the lateral entry of 45 JS, Director and Deputy Secretary rank officers in view of opposition from its allies like Janata Dal (United) and Lok Janshakti Party. The government has urged the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to cancel the advertisement for the same, suggesting a review keeping in mind reservation norms to ensure social equity. Meanwhile, the proposed nationwide strike by confederation of Dalit and Adivasi organisations demanding a central law to nullify a Supreme Court judgement allowing sub-classification of Scheduled Castes (SCs) in the quota system has also put the Government under pressure.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress president & RS LoP Mallikarjuna Kharge too called it unconstitutional and dubbed it an attempt for the backdoor entry of the RSS workers in the government services. This is the second occasion after the Waqf Bill that the Union government blinked.
Union minister Jitendra Singh has written UPSC chairman Preeti Sudan that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stressed that the “process of lateral entry must be aligned with the principles of equity and social justice enshrined in our Constitution, particularly concerning the provisions of reservation.” The government argued that the scheme began during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and pointed to several lateral entrants – including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh – brought in by previous regimes. But NDA ally and Union minister Chirag Paswan said that he would push for a review of the scheme to ensure reservation norms are adhered to.
Jitendra Singh underlined, “Since these positions have been treated as specialized and designated as single-cadre posts, there has been no provision for reservation in these appointments.” He further said that this aspect needs to be reviewed and reformed in the context of the PM’s focus on ensuring social justice. Singh said as a principle, lateral entry was endorsed by the Second Administrative Reforms Commission which was constituted in 2005, and chaired by Veerappa Moily. “The recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission in 2013 were also in the same direction. However, both before and after that there have been many high-profile cases of lateral.”
Singh said that most of the major lateral entries before 2014 were made in an ad-hoc manner including alleged favouritism. Government officials are usually recruited through the civil services exam process but lateral entrants, typically experts, in a particular field are inducted directly. No quota is currently applicable to these appointments.
(By Vinod Kumar Shukla)
