New Delhi, Aug 19: Over 6,000 professionals from the private sector have reverted to the government's invitation of applications for 10 joint secretary posts.

Referred to as "lateral entry" into the bureaucracy -- this would be the first occasions when recruitment for the post of joint secretary would be made laterally .ie. selecting candidates who are not IAS, IPS, IFS or IRS officers recruited through the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

Till July 30, which was the last date for applying, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had received 6,077 applications. The aspirants would be shortlisted based on their qualification and experience.

As per the advertisement issued by the DoPT in May, one joint secretary each were to be recruited for the following ministries: revenue, financial services, economic affairs, agriculture and farmers welfare, road transport and highways, shipping, environment, forest and climate change, new and renewable energy, civil aviation and commerce departments.

The Opposition had raised hue and cry over lateral recruitments as they would not require adherence to reservation for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, as mandated in the recruitments made through the UPSC.

In a bid to ally the criticism, Minister of State for Personnel, Jitendra Singh issued a written reply in the Lok Sabha, pointing out previous instances when individuals with calibre were laterally recruited into the bureaucracy.

"This includes, among others, appointment of Manmohan Singh, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Vijay Kelkar, Bimal Jalan, Shankar Acharya, Rakesh Mohan, Arvind Virmani, Arvind Panagariya, Arvind Subramanian and Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Parameswaran Iyer and Ram Vinay Shahi. No adverse effect on the morale of the civil servants has resulted from lateral recruitments," he said.

Singh further claimed that the Modi government resorted to the lateral route to achieve the twin objectives of "bringing in fresh talent as well as augment the availability of manpower".

The Minister further cited the report released by the Sectoral Group of Secretaries (SGoS) in February 2017, which red-flagged the shortage of officers at Joint Secretary, Director, Deputy Secretary. The shortage was caused due to the reduction in recruitment of civil servants between 1995-2002.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 19, 2018 06:58 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).