B Anbuselvan By Express News Service CHENNAI: In what appears to be an attempt to centralise recruitment process for jobs in State governments, the Centre has proposed to set up an agency for conducting Common Eligibility Test (CET) for shortlisting candidates for appointment to Group B and Group C posts in government and its undertakings.Though governments have got their own recruiting agencies, the Department of Personal and Training also suggested State governments can sign an MoU with the proposed recruiting agency and use the CET score for filling group B and C posts. The Centre also restricted the maximum number of appearance for CET exams to three. Currently, only applicants of Group I exams conducted by UPSC have restriction on number of attempts with respect to their to communities.The CET first is to conduct filling of non-technical posts in banking, railways and other Central government departments for which so far recruitment conducted through Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs), the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) and Staff Selection Commission (SSC). The Centre in its Monday order said CET would eliminate hassle of job aspirants from taking up separate examinations conducted by different recruiting agencies which has similar eligibility criteria.Besides saving application fee and travelling cost, the CET would also reduce selection process time. One test centre would be set up at every district in the country so as to improve access to rural candidates, said the order. A separate CET to be conducted for graduate, higher secondary and matriculate candidates for non-technical posts in railways, banking and other union government departments.“The online test score obtained by candidate will be valid for three years and each candidates will be given two additional chances for improving the score,” added the order. The Union ministry have sought the comments from all stakeholders including States, Union Territories, job aspirants and other private agencies within 30 days. The private companies also been allowed to have an agreement with the agency to use their score for filling vacancies.A Socrates of Perambalur, an UPSC aspirant living in Delhi said, “Its more than an elimination process than selection. The move would eliminate more candidates from lower economic and social strata. Except a few those studied CBSE syllabus, majority from rural parts of the State write at least five to six competitive exams before clearing Group I UPSC. If the number of attempts are restricted from candidates of economically weaker sections, most will not get Group B posts.”A Tamil Nadu cadre group one officer who teaches UPSC job aspirants in Chennai pointed out that TNPSC is constitutional body like UPSC. “When States already have got their own recruitment agencies, what is the need for another agency?”

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