Question : COMMITTEE ON RECRUITMENT REFORM

(a) Whether some suggestions have been made that the selection to Indian Civil Services should be made according to the specialisation of the candidate in a particular area such as health care, education, science and technology, industry, economics and finance, culture, food and agriculture, foreign affairs, information technology etc;

(b) if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether the recommendations have been made earlier also by a committee set up by the Government to reform the recruitment procedure to the Civil Services;

(d) if so, the details thereof;

(e) whether the Government has considered the suggestions made at

(a) above and the recommendations made by the committee; and

(f) if so, the concrete proposals formulated by the Government to bring about the required reforms in the matter of recruitment to the Civil Services?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS.(SHRI HARIN PATHAK)

(a)&(b): Separate competitive examinations are held for the services where specialization of the candidates is required with requisite qualifications as eligibility conditions.

(c),(d),(e)&(f): Reforms in the recruitment system is a continuous process. A Committee commonly known as Kothari Committee, was constituted by the Union Public Service Commission to review the I.A.S. etc. Examination through which recruitment to a number of All India Services and Central Services, Group `A` and Group `B` is made. That Committee recommended a unified competitive examination, known as Civil Services Examinations, in place of the then existing three separate examinations. The scheme of the Civil Services Examinations have further been reviewed by Prof. Alagh Committee. That Committee too has not recommended selection to the higher Civil services according to the specialization of the candidates.