by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
special report
After UPSC, NITI Aayog to hire 55 Directly in Top positions
First Time Large scale Lateral entrant as Joint Secretary & Above in Govt.
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, June 6
after the first batch of 10 highly qualified persons cleared for induction into the IAS directly through the UPSC, the Modi government is now getting ready to induct another 55 for lateral entry of experts into the civil service.
But this task has now been taken away from the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and will be processed through the NITI Aayog, Modi's new Think Tank.
The 10 persons selected by the UPSC and interviewed and gone through the drill, will be shortly given the appointment letters which will be the first batch of lateral entry officers. The UPSC has sent the file to the DoPT. These have been selected in the rank of the joint secretaries.
According to highly-placed officials, the government plans to soon advertise for direct recruitment of more than four dozen positions in NITI Aayog at different levels, including directors, joint secretaries and even at the level of the additional secretaries, etc.
They will have a fixed salary of over Rs 3 lakhs and a minimum of five year tenure, say these sources. NITI Aayog and other bodies have been hiring consultants on contracts at whims and fancies until now. Now these new posts would be at par with regular government servants.
The NITI Aayog has already identified the areas in which talent is required. Initially, there will be 55 positions. But these can go upto 500 plus top ranking vacancies.
The proposed advertisement for these posts is engaging the attention of the Department of Personnel under the PMO as it is being done at the large scale and talent is being drawn from the private sector on the basis of performance and other qualifications.
The PM has been inducting highly qualified professionals even in the rank of the secretaries in Aayush, Sanitation and other key departments.
These secretaries have a fixed tenure and outside the seniority level of the regular bureaucracy. But the advertisements for the 55 posts would be out either this month end of July.
These posts are recognised as ‘flexi-pool posts’, for which the NITI Aayog usually hires consultants as needed.
After the initial period of five years, their work will be revalued and given further appointment for three years.
