New Delhi: The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved setting up of National Recruitment Agency (NRA) to conduct Common Eligibility Test (CET), paving the way for a transformational reform in the recruitment process for central government jobs.
The National Recruitment Agency will conduct a CET to screen and shortlist candidates for the Group B and C (non-technical) posts. NRA will have representatives of Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Finance, SSC, RRB and IBPS.
“List of successful candidates from CET can be utilised by State Governments also; 1000 centers will be established with at least 1 center in each district,” said Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh after the meeting.
NRA will be an autonomous society registered under Societies Act with representatives from all three agencies. It will conduct Tier-1 exam which will be conducted online; scores will be available immediately to candidate, informed Department of Personnel Training, Secretary.
“Scores of CET will be valid for three years and candidates can improve score by appearing again and best score will be considered,” he added.
Nearly 2.5 to 3 crore people appear for over 1.25 lakh Central Government vacancies in Group B and C every year through IBPS, SSC and RRB. Now these multiple exams will be reduced to one. Government recruitment exams have different schedules, application processes and fees; malpractices take place due to infrastructural challenges. To eliminate these challenges, decision of setting up a NRA has been taken by Cabinet,” said the Secretary.