13 departments of Assam government must sign MoUs with four universities

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Each of the 13 departments of the Assam government will have to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with each of the four shortlisted universities entrusting the latter to carry out the entire process of recruitment of personnel (in phase 1) to the respective departments. The process includes publishing advertisements to declaration of results. The State government will not involve itself in the actual process of recruitment examinations.

This is the outcome of the October 5, 2020 meeting between representatives of the universities and Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna. The meeting also decided that all major recruitments will have to be completed by December 28, 2020. These moves are aimed at making the process of filling up vacant posts in various departments of the State government a clean and transparent one.

Four universities of the State have been chosen for holding recruitment examinations of various departments.

Based on the large number of posts lying vacant, the State government has listed 13 departments in the first phase of the recruitment process. In phase-1, Dibrugarh University will conduct the recruitment process of Police, Home Guard, Prisons, P&RD (Panchayat and Rural Development) and the Department of Labour. Likewise, Gauhati University will carry out the recruitment processes of the Industries and Commerce, Skill Development, and Transport, as well as the Excise and Forest departments. While the Assam University will conduct the recruitment process of the Social Welfare and the Soil Conservation departments, Tezpur University will do that of the Department of Irrigation.

The October 5 meeting also decided that the senior-most secretaries of the departments would hold detailed discussions with the assigned universities to prepare details of the modalities for conducting the examinations. By October 7, the secretaries were supposed to draw up the MoUs and send them to the Chief Secretary for his approval.

Taking the malpractices in the SI (Sub-Inspector) recruitment examination in the State Police Force into account, the government has entrusted the universities for holding the recruitment examinations confidentially and impartially. The government wants to ensure that no vested interests interfere in the recruitment processes.

What is significant is that the State government will provide all the necessary logistics and security to the universities for holding the examinations. However, it has been emphasized that the State government 'shall not' involve itself in the actual process of holding the written examinations for recruitment.

Apart from the Chief Secretary, the October 5 meeting was also attended by DGP Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, ADGP Harmeet Singh and IGP Hiren Chandra Nath, besides a number of Principal Secretaries and Commissioner-Secretaries of various departments.

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