The West Bengal government is planning to introduce a new recruitment policy during the assembly's budget session, aiming for a comprehensive overhaul of the state's hiring process to eliminate corruption. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari stated that the policy will be transparent and restructure the examination and hiring process. The new policy is likely to be discussed on June 6 during a meeting involving all recruitment organizations in the state.
Transparency and Academic Performance
Speaking at a Rozgar Mela in Sealdah on Saturday, Adhikari said: "We will bring in a fresh recruitment policy in the next budget session. The evaluation (of examinees) will be based on their academic performance. We want the recruitment process to be transparent." He emphasized that Bengal will emulate the central government's recruitment processes, such as those used by the Railway Recruitment Board. "The Railway Recruitment Board has a hiring process. We will follow that structure to bring in transparency to the recruitment process," the CM added, noting that discussions have already been held on the matter.
Addressing Past Scams
Adhikari pointed out that Bengal's public recruitment systems have been severely compromised by cash-for-jobs scams, severely affecting government hiring. He referred to scams involving manipulation of merit lists, bribery, and the destruction of OMR answer sheets that wrecked the teacher recruitment process. The Supreme Court ordered the cancellation of more than 25,000 teaching and non-teaching jobs from the 2016 State Level Selection Test, citing irredeemable fraud and manipulated merit lists that tainted the entire recruitment process. This led to mass protests and hunger strikes by examinees across the state. During recruitments at municipalities, large-scale OMR sheet-based frauds were also noticed.
Measures for Transparency
"I asked officials about the processes a written examination involves. They said that while the written test is conducted over OMR sheets, the carbon copy is not handed over to the students. This is a very bad practice. Such a process encourages nepotism, corruption and mala fide intentions," Adhikari said. The CM stated that candidates should be provided with compulsory carbon copies of their OMR answer sheets to establish direct transparency. Plans were also in place to reduce the weightage of viva and interview stages during selections. "Maximum weightage is allocated to the viva session and that is not good. The weightage should be minimised for viva sessions or interviews," he added.
Additional Reforms
The Bengal government has already announced a five-year age relaxation for over-age job applicants. Adhikari also said that the "100-point roster" will be followed during recruitment processes. A "100-point roster" is a regulatory mechanism used by government bodies and institutions to ensure equitable reservation in hiring and promotions.
