NEW DELHI: Five top level positions will become vacant in the in important ministries in September as the government decided to withdraw its lateral entry drive.
These positions are held by officers appointed at the joint secretary level via lateral entry process, and their tenures are set to conclude this month between September 11 and September 22. They are associated with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), Ministry of Shipping, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Sources indicate the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) plans to fill these positions with officers who have applied for deputation. Finalising the candidates could take one-two months. The UPSC is likely to develop a new scheme for recruiting external candidates, which may include provisions for reservations.
In 2018, the government announced openings for 10 joint secretary-level positions under the scheme, resulting in hiring of nine candidates, of whom eight joined. The initial tenure for these appointments is 3 years, with the possibility of a two-year extension. This month, tenure of five serving officers will come to an end.
As per a former secretary who didn’t want to be named, in the government system, people with expertise in particular domains are required. It is better to have a mix of professionals who get hired from the central government services and those who are selected from the outside.
Another senior official indicated there will be some disruption in day-to-day functioning of the government until a new replacement is found. The new appointee will need time to settle in and get things running smoothly. The controversy surrounding lateral entry into the civil services began in 2018 when the government appointed 10 joint secretaries via this new process.
The government argued it implemented a structured selection process via the UPSC to recruit specialists, contrasting this with the previous practice during the UPA era, where appointments were often made without formal selection criteria. They pointed to notable figures like Manmohan Singh, served as finance secretary, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Sam Pitroda, highlighting that these appointments lacked a rigorous selection process.
