Direct Recruitment in Grade 'A' & 'B'

The Chairman                                                                                      20/09/2013

NABARD, Head Office                           

Mumbai

Dear Sir,

Direct Recruitment in Grade ‘A’ &‘B’-RDBS

Please refer to the advertisement posted by the bank regarding direct recruitment of grade ‘A’ & ‘B’ officers in bank’s RDBS category of services. In this regard the following is submitted for kind consideration:

1. The bank has embarked upon a similar exercise in 1984/1985 and 1987 and the havoc it has played with the career prospects of hundreds of officers resulting into de-motivation and frustration in the rank and file of entire organization is a fact known to all of us. RBI has a system of direct recruitment in grade ‘B’ as they do not recruit officers from the market in grade ‘A’, which is not true in NABARDs case as bank continues to recruit officers from the market in grade ‘A’ and these young officers are having equivalent or more qualification as is being prescribed for Direct Recruitment in grade ‘B’. Incidentally, the recruitment in grade ‘A’ is done after a rigorous screening process comprising of written tests (prelims and mains) and interviews.

2. The present policy of the bank in respect of recruitment and selection process has been challenged legally by the Association and is subjudice in the High Court of Mumbai.

3. AINBOA has opposed to such lateral level recruitment all through the last 25 years and the respective managements have given due credence by stopping lateral level recruitments.

4. More so the bank is not even following its own policy which says that direct recruitment in Grade ‘B’ shall be undertaken through a written test followed by interviews. It is ironical to note that the bank has diluted its own rule by doing away with the written test and holding only the interviews. This leads to many questions and eyebrows being raised as written test are objective and transparent ways to assess the capability of a candidate, while selection process based only on interviews is subjective in nature and beset with biases.

5. It is surprising to note that though the bank has introduced written test for its internal promotion process (both for Grade ‘A’ to ‘B’ and for Grade ‘C’ to ‘D’) and has not undertaken promotion exercise for grade ‘B’ to ‘C’ during last three years, still it is so soft on the recruitment of direct Grade ‘B’ officers that it has done away with the process of written examination.

6. More so by restricting the eligibility criterion for a grade ‘A’ recruitment to BE/B.Tech a clear bias is being indicated towards graduates of other disciplines. Isn’t it ironic that a commerce graduate from a reputed institution like Sri Ram College of Commerce) or an Agricultural graduate from Pant Nagar Agricultural University (just elaborations) or a graduate in Bio Technology are not eligible to write the recruitment test of NABARD while a candidate who may be a pass out from any of the run in the mill Engineering College (which have mushroomed all around the country) are eligible to be the candidates for recruitment. Even the UPSC recruitments do not demarcate between graduates of different disciplines.

7. Another point which we would like to point out is that during the last two years the bank has appointed officers in NABARD at its whims and fancies - officers in grade ‘A’ on contractual appointments in J&K and NE regions, contractual appointment in grade ‘B’ at its head Office in Mumbai and officers in grade ‘C’ &‘D’ by absorption from other institutes.

Sir, you will agree that all such appointments in a PSU may lead to controversies and Industrial disharmony which are avoidable and may bring disrepute to our organization besides fanning the de-motivation and frustration among its own officers.

In the circumstances, you are requested to immediately stop the process of recruitment in Grade ‘B’, stop recruitment of officers on contractual basis and re-advertise the recruitment process for Grade ‘A’ after suitable amendments to the eligibility criterion clause.

Thanking You

Yours Sincerely,

(Dr D S Chauhan)

General Secretary