NEW DELHI: THE Ministry of Personnel has proposed to set up a specialised agency to conduct a Common Eligibility Test (CET) to shortlist candidates for appointment to Group ‘B’ Non-Gazetted posts, certain Group ‘B’ Gazetted posts, Group ‘C’ posts in the government. The move is aimed at mitigating the trouble faced by candidates who appear for multiple examinations which are conducted by multiple agencies. Every year, 2.5 crore candidates seeking government jobs have to appear for multiple examinations conducted by recruiting agencies for 1.25 lakh vacancies with similar eligibility criteria.
The move will help the candidates in saving multiple application fees and travelling cost to appear in these examinations. It will also improve access to rural candidates by setting up at least one test centre in every district and reduce the time taken in the selection process and facilitate employment generation. As per the proposal, there will be common registration of candidates through an online portal and to begin with, separate CETs will be conducted for graduate, higher secondary and matriculate candidates for nontechnical posts for which recruitment is currently carried through the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), and the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs).