Dr Ajit Ranade (left) felicitated Sitaram Kunte by by presenting him Mahatma Gandhi's book 'Gokhale My Political Guru'

Pune, August 29 : "Aligning lateral entry with the principles of social justice is the need but is going to be a tough exercise", said Sitaram Kunte, former Chief Secretary of Government of Maharashtra while delivering a talk on 'Perspectives on Lateral Entry' to the students at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics today. Dr. Ajit Ranade, Vice Chancellor of the Gokhale Institute was also present on the occasion. During his talk, he discussed pros and the cons of lateral entry and also made an attempt to give an insight into the recent controversy surrounding lateral entry.

While sharing the details of the scheme he said, "The history of lateral entry goes back to the 1950s. In the year 2017, the NITI Aayog recommended the lateral entry scheme, and the first phase of lateral entry was completed with the induction of 8 Joint Secretaries in the year 2019. Subsequently, the second phase of recruitment happened in 2022, and the third one in 2023. Out of 63 individuals who have joined the service through the lateral entry process, about 50 are still working. Though there was some opposition for the earlier recruitments, it was weak. Now, in the changed political situation, the opposition was louder on the ground of social justice for the backward class and the central government was quick enough to withdraw the recent advertisement given for the recruitment of 45 positions under the lateral entry scheme. The controversy sparked off since there was no mention of reservation in the advertisement for this proposed recruitment of 4th phase."

"Those who argue in support of lateral entry claim that it is an induction of specialized skills and expertise which will facilitate innovations and reforms through fresh perspectives and will bring some change in work culture. Whereas the opposition leaders criticize the lateral entry policy by alleging that it is a ploy to circumvent reservation policy, it is a mechanism by which Corporates infiltrate into the government, it adversely affects the promotional prospects of various cadres thereby affecting the morale of incumbent bureaucrats. So, the question arises, Does the idea of lateral entry collide with the idea of social justice? So, the recruitment process should be a balanced and transparent one", he added.  

"If the reservation rules were applied to this proposed phase 4 recruitment of 45 candidates, then 23 would have been for the open category candidates and the remaining 22 would have been for the candidates belonging to the OBC, SC, and the ST category. Even after applying the reservation rules, finding a suitable candidate from the particular category of reservation is not going to be an easy task". Kunte pointed out.

He explained to the students how the reservation process is implemented by the government, Article 16, and the 200-point roster method of implementing reservation. The students participated in the question and answer session after the lecture.