low-rung clerks, who form the backbone of secretarial work in the Central Government, may soon carry a corporate tag. As part of key administrative reforms, the Government on Wednesday decided to replace lower and Upper Division Clerks (lDCs and UDCs) by tech-savvy and multi-tasking Executive Assistants (EAs).
The move is based on recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission which had suggested recruitment of multi-skilled Executive Assistants with educational qualifications of a degree from a recognised university and a one-year diploma in computer education in place of clerks.
As per the plan, the cadre of Executive Assistants will replace existing Central Secretariat Service (CSS) and Central Secretariat Stenographers Service (CSSS) in about 20-25 years’ time.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has sought views from Central Ministries and departments on the proposed scheme within one-month time.
After doing away with interview system in Group C and D recruitment, this is yet another move in revamping the low-rung civil service. As part of the reform process, the Government had also asked all the Ministries and departments to complete the recruitment process right from advertisement of vacancies to announcement of results within a span of six months.
“They will perform work of both the present day Assistants and Stenographers and in their case CSS and CSSS cadres would become merged. The issue of introduction of Executive Assistants scheme was also referred to the 7th CPC for their views,” said a DoPT official. Both CSS and CSSS work in different sections and as personal staff to senior officers.
Interestingly, the Commission did not make any recommendation on introduction of the scheme in its report submitted to the Government recently. As per the proposed scheme, the Executive Assistants will be recruited through an open competition conducted by the Staff Selection Commission. After six years of service, the EAs will be eligible for promotion as Executive Officers (EOs).
In private sector, Executive Assistants are professionals attached to top-level executives for various administrative jobs. The proposed scheme envisages much reduced strength in central secretariat which at present is approximately 21,000, will stand reduced to about 8,200, the DoPT said.
The proposal is based on assumptions that secretariat functioning will gradually become more Information Technology based and reduce reliance on papers. It will also result in reduced numbers in the personal staff in secretariat.
“As the EAs would be better qualified compared to the current personal assistants and more reliance would be on the IT-based systems, it is assumed that the number of staff members in the personal staff of senior officers would also be reduced,” the proposal reads.
The association of CSS officers has strongly objected to the proposal, whereas, CSSS officers association has favoured merger of the two secretarial services, thereby extending its support to the EAs system.