Puducherry Examining Authority constituted for recruitment of Group C and Group B posts in Puducherry

Effecting a major change in the direct recruitment process to fill vacancies in Group C and Group B (non- Gazetted ) posts in the Union Territory, the government has established the ‘Puducherry Examining Authority,’ to prescribe a combined recruitment examination for various levels. 

At present the Group C and Group B cadre posts are filled with the assistance of Examination Cell of the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Chief Secretariat, after the departments concerned issue notifications, the pattern and syllabus for the examinations. 

A notification announcing the setting up of Puducherry Examining Authority (PEA), last week, said the existing recruitment process “leads to multiple examinations at short intervals and in some cases, even though the basic qualifications are found to be similar, separate examinations are conducted causing undue stress to the applicants and involving huge financial implications to the government.” 

Hence, the government has decided to constitute the authority with Chief Secretary as Chairperson, Secretary to Government (Finance), Secretary to Government (Personnel) as members, a Secretary level officer nominated by the government as Controller of Examinations and Deputy/Under Secretary ( Personnel) as Member Secretary.

As per the notification, PEA will conduct the recruitment and recommend candidates for appointments to the Group C and Group B posts in departments. The Authority will advertise/notify vacancies reported to it by the departments and autonomous bodies. 

The Controller of Examinations under the overall supervision and guidance of the Chairman will be responsible for all processes in actual conduct of recruitment including written competitive examination, confidential processes and preparation of merit list/select list, as per options exercised for the posts, categories of reservation and position in the merit list. 

The recruitment will be conducted by grouping the posts depending upon the basic qualifications, i.e. 10th Standard level, 12th Standard level, Degree level. English will be the language of the written competitive examination.

However, for Combined Secondary Level Examination (CSL) (for posts with educational qualification of CBSE Class 10 standard or equivalent), “as far as practicable” should be bilingual i.e., English &Tamil, English & Telugu and English & Malayalam. The government can direct the Authority to use bilingual question papers in other examination as per requirement and feasibility, the notification said.

There will be negative marks for CSL, Combined Higher Secondary Level (for posts with educational qualification of CBSE 10 + 2 level or equivalent and Combined Graduate Level (for posts with educational qualification of degree in any or specified subjects or equivalent) for examination.