NEW DELHI, Aug 19 - The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved creation of a National Recruitment Agency (NRA) to conduct an online Common Eligibility Test for selecting candidates for majority of Central government jobs, an official statement said.
Briefing the media on the Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said it was a historic decision that will allow job-seekers take one common test and save costs and time spent on writing multiple exams.
The NRA will set up examination centres in every district of the country to help youths, especially women, from rural and far flung areas of the country, as they won�t be required to travel to another place to take recruitment tests, the statement issued by the Personnel Ministry said.
At present, �candidates have to appear in multiple examinations conducted by multiple agencies. Apart from the examination fees, candidates have to incur additional expenses for travel, boarding, lodging. A single examination would reduce the financial burden on candidates to a large extent�, it said.
A Common Eligibility Test would enable these candidates to appear once and apply to any or all of these recruitment agencies for the higher level of examination. This would indeed be a boon to all the candidates, the statement said.
On an average, 2.5-3 crore candidates appear in each of these examinations, it said.
Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh, who also addressed the media with Javadekar, termed the decision to set up the NRA as a historic, visionary and revolutionary reform in the field of recruitment for Central government jobs.
It will lead to ease of selection, ease of job placement and ease of living, especially for those sections of society that are considered disadvantaged, he said. � PTI
