Recent Issue-

Recent a notification, the Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India, said the lateral entry scheme for appointing joint secretaries has been started to “invite talented and motivated Indian nationals willing to contribute towards nation building to join the Government.”

• The proposal of lateral entry is aimed at bringing in fresh ideas and new approaches to governance and also to augment manpower.
• In a bid to rope in the expertise of private sector professionals, Union government has notified 10 positions of joint secretaries through ‘lateral entry’ scheme.

Generally, senior bureaucrats are appointed as joint secretaries in several government departments. Any private sector professional with 15 years of work experience in any of the 10 fields like civil aviation, commerce, economic affairs can apply for the posts. The age of the candidate should not be less than 40 years.

Why needed of Lateral Entry-

Due to inefficiency; need to change the behavioral and attitudinal part of bureaucracy.

Challenges can be faced by the practice of Lateral Entry-

1. India has a high corrupt system, particularly in states. So to allow private people for short term of 2-3 years where they can leave without responsibility, there cannot be any disciplinary control over them or the actions taken.
2. The fairness of the selection process– the process of recruitment should not be corrupt.
3. Chief Secretary’s post has become highly political post.
4. It will be difficult for the country to bring in private players for two-three years and then entangling in legal matters over the decisions taken by them.

Concerns for Lateral entry to be notice-

• Experience
• Result oriented
• Short-term results
• Profit loss
• Demotivation
• Political favoritism
• Corruption and Nepotism

Need of the hour: Reforming the civil services-

• For bureaucracy to change its system, there is a need to first bring in political reforms. Unless the politicians allow the civil servants to do their job properly, they cannot be faulted for not doing their jobs.
• There is an incentive to not make any mistake but no incentive to do anything right. So there is a need to change the incentive structure for promotion. Having lateral selection after certain level of seniority within the government will allow sufficient competition in play and get good people.
• Those who fail to make the cut, shall retire. It is not necessary that everyone who joins the services should retire at secretarial levels. Currently, some people are being compulsorily retired after 50years when the rigorous review is taken place.
• Even at state level such steps should be taken. There should be written examinations and interviews at middle level career to weed out incompetent people.
• For Instance, Lot of administration is mainly looked at Delhi. But three fourth of the administration is based outside Delhi.
• There is no force to settle the political situation in some states like UP.
• More and more departments and portfolios should be combined into one.
• A systemic cleansing approach needs to be taken to ensure that there is improvement in bureaucracy.
• In SR Das report, the average tenure of the district collector is 7 months and is still a reality today. Instead there should be a commissioner in district where he is reported to

Way forward-

UPSC has had an excellent record over years. The careers of the service officers is selected from the best in India. He/she has seen cross sectoral experience of 10-15 sectors. Thus they has certain advantage. The man at the top has a broad vision rather than having domain expertise. Hence, the top positions in critical areas should be reserved for within the government.

For the sectors that require more of technical and domain knowledge, lateral entry can be considered a good option. In principle it is a good idea. But the private sector should be involved only when there is a required gap to be filled. Along with recruitment, they should be also made accountable for the actions and decisions taken in capacity of a government officer.

Accountability will ensure no personal gains once the position is left. Hence, Broadly, lateral entry should be favored only if it is to stay for long term.

Such steps will help in smooth assimilation of people from walks of life being included in the bureaucratic framework, with their professional integrity assured and no unnecessary political pressure to favor a particular community or cause. This step can also help in filling the shortage of bureaucrats at top posts and help in reducing the red tape mechanism of the country’s administrative system.

Lastly, political reforms are the key to system change in governance in country. They should be slowly induced with time to make bureaucracy more efficient.