Andhra Pradesh Government Abolishes Interviews For Recruitment In State Govt Jobs

The Andhra Pradesh Government dispensed interviews for all Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) recruitments, including Group I positions. On Saturday, Chief Secretary Adityanath Das issued orders to implement the same. The decision was made to maintain transparency and ensure the faith of the competing candidates in the selection process.

Earlier, the government had announced the filling of 10,143 vacancies during the year 2021-22. The recent reform was implemented according to the recommendation of a committee led by the erstwhile Special Chief Secretary J Satyanarayana. It will apply for all the recruitments notified from June 26 onwards. The secretary has directed the secretary of APPSC to take the required measures to implement the order.

Andhra University Professor S Prasanna said that their communication skills would not hold much importance if they had the necessary administrative skills. She said, "It will help candidates from rural backgrounds, who fail to get through interviews, despite doing extremely well in the written tests," as reported by Hindustan Times.

Moreover, it would also prevent corruption in the hiring process. "It will make the recruitments more transparent and merit-based," she asserted.

Origin of the reform

In 2011, the combined state government had dispensed interviews in recruitment to various posts, except for Group I posts which include job roles like Revenue Divisional Officer and Deputy Collector, to name a few. The exemption also applied to executive positions where public interaction was needed.

In 2014, the state government bifurcated into the Telangana government and the Andhra Pradesh government. During 2016-17, the government of Andhra Pradesh introduced the interview system again to fill up a few more crucial government positions.

However, in October 2019, the government arranged a review meeting to change this norm. It was proposed that for any recruitment by the APPSC, no interviews will be conducted. After analysing the proposal carefully, the government decided to implement the change from now onwards.

The ongoing case of review petition

Meanwhile, in December 2020, the APPSC conducted written examinations for Group I positions. Based on this, almost 326 candidates were short-listed. However, some of the candidates filed petitions challenging the digital evaluation of the answer scripts. On June 23, the High Court issued interim orders to suspend the interview process for four weeks.

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