The Modi government has cancelled the advertisement for recruitment through lateral entry for 45 posts in the country’s top bureaucracy. The opposition had raised questions on this recruitment and called it an attempt to end reservation. Only after this did the Modi government take this decision. Personnel Department Minister Jitendra Singh has written a letter to UPSC Chairman Preeti Sudan asking her to cancel this recruitment. In this letter, Jitendra Singh said that PM Narendra Modi is determined that lateral entry recruitment should also be done under the right to equality given in the Constitution. Especially, there should be no tampering with reservation in the country.
He said that PM Modi believes that there should be a government commitment towards social justice in public jobs. The purpose of this reservation is to eradicate historical injustice and promote inclusion and harmony in society. The Union Minister also said in his letter that lateral entry posts are considered to be specialized. These are single cadre posts, so till now there was no provision of reservation in them. Therefore, it needs to be reviewed and then improved. Therefore, I will ask UPSC to cancel the lateral entry advertisement issued on August 17. Doing so will be better in terms of social justice and empowerment.
The minister said- it was the UPA government that brought the proposal for lateral entry
The Union Minister also targeted the opposition in his letter and said that the concept of lateral entry came up in 2005 during the UPA government. Jitendra Singh wrote, ‘Everyone knows that in principle, the proposal for lateral entry came up in 2005. Then an Administrative Reforms Commission was formed under the leadership of Veerappa Moily, in which such recommendations were made. After this, the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission in 2013 were also in the same direction. However, many cases of lateral entry came to light before and after that as well.’
Questions were also raised on Sonia’s advisory council
He also gave the example of the people appointed in the National Advisory Council of the UPA government. He said that before 2014, people of their choice were appointed through lateral entry. Whereas our government has decided to do it in an institutional and transparent manner. It is worth mentioning that in the UPA government, Sonia Gandhi herself was the head of the Advisory Council and many people like Harsh Mander, Farah Naqvi were included in it as members.
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