The Centre on Tuesday shot off a letter to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) chairman to cancel the advertisement for lateral entry recruitment issued on August 17, 2024.
In a letter to the UPSC chairman, Union Minister Jitendra Singh wrote that it is well known that, as a principle, lateral entry was endorsed by the Second Administrative Reforms Commission which was constituted in 2005, 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 entrants.
Under earlier governments, posts as important as that of Secretary in various ministries, leadership of UIDAI etc have been given to lateral entrants without following any process of reservations. It is well known that the members of the infamous National Advisory Council used to run a super-bureaucracy that controlled the Prime Minister’s Office, the letter read.
The letter further highlighted that while most of the major lateral entries before 2014 were made in ad hoc manner, including cases of alleged favouritism, efforts of our government have been to make the process institutionally driven, transparent and open.
“Prime Minister is of the firm belief 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. It is important that the constitutional mandate towards social justice is upheld so that deserving candidates from marginalised communities get their representation in government services,”the letter read.
