Why National Recruitment Agency not seen 'light of the day'? Parliamentary panel asks DoPT

NEW DELHI: A parliamentary standing committee has asked the DoPT to inform it why the National Recruitment Agency (NRA) has not seen the “light of the day” despite having been allotted a budget of Rs 396 crore for 2022-23. The NRA, mandated to conduct online exams to screen government job aspirants, was given an approval in 2020 by the union cabinet, the panel said in its report.

"The Committee also notes that NRA has utilised Rs 58.32 crore in 2021-22 and an outlay of Rs 396 crore has been earmarked in BE 2022-23. “However, NRA has not seen the light of the day yet," it said. The report -- Demands for Grants (2022-23) -- was put together by the standing committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).

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In its report tabled in Parliament on Thursday, the committee asked the DoPT to inform it by when the NRA will become fully functional. The NRA was set up as an autonomous and self-reliant body to conduct a Common Eligibility Test (CET) to shortlist candidates for vacancies of Group 'B' non-gazetted posts, Group 'B' gazetted posts, Group 'C' posts in the government and equivalent posts through a computer-based Tier-I examination, the report said.

The agency was also mandated to conduct a separate CET for graduate, higher secondary (12th), and matriculate candidates for such non-technical posts as those filled by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs), and the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) through their recruitment process, it said.

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The NRA, the report said, then is supposed to share CET scores with the SSC, RRB, and IBPS for next level examinations. The scores obtained by the candidate in the CET will be valid for three years, and the highest score obtained in the last three years will be considered at the next level of recruitment process, said the report of the panel headed by BJP's Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi. Thus, candidates can appear in multiple Tier-II and onward examinations as long as their score is valid and they are shortlisted by recruitment bodies, it added.