Govt asks UPSC to cancel lateral entry advertisements

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday wrote a letter to Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and asked it to withdraw advertisement for lateral entry recruitments.

“While most of the major lateral entries before 2014 were made in an ad-hoc manner, including cases of alleged favoritism, efforts of our government have been to make the process institutionally driven, transparent and open,” Union minister Jitendra Singh said in his letter to UPSC chairperson Preeti Sudan.

In his letter minister of state for personnel Jitendra Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes that lateral entry should be in line with “principles of equity and social justice,” particularly regarding “provisions of reservation.”

“For Prime Minister, reservation in public employment is a cornerstone of our social justice framework, aimed at addressing historical injustices and promoting inclusivity,” he added.

The minister also pointed out that previous governments had appointed individuals to critical positions, such as secretary in various ministries and leadership roles in UIDAI, without following any reservation process, both before and after the commissions.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, and several other opposition leaders had opposed the lateral entry in bureaucracy and accused the BJP of “snatching reserveration”.

What is lateral entry?
The practice of recruiting individuals from outside the traditional government service cadres to fill mid and senior-level positions is known as lateral entry into bureaucracy.

During the tenure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, lateral entry into bureaucracy was formally introduced, with the first set of vacancies announced in 2018.

The contracts for these positions typically range from three to five years, with the possibility of extensions based on performance. The goal is to address complex governance and policy implementation challenges by leveraging external expertise.

Lateral entry is not a new concept, as it was initially recommended by the Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) established in 2005 during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by Congress. Chaired by Veerappa Moily, the ARC advocated for lateral entry to fill roles requiring specialised knowledge unavailable within traditional civil services. The recommendations focused on recruiting professionals from the private sector, academia and PSUs to enhance policy implementation and governance.