Following the recent recruitment scandals unearthed in the CRPF, the government has decided to change selection procedure of constables for the central para-military forces, introducing more technology in the process and minimising the scope of human discretion.

In the new process, applicable to all the central forces and not just restricted to CRPF, interviews have been completely dispensed with. It has been found that maximum bungling in the previous procedure used to take place at the interview stage which left a huge scope for discretion for the selection panel.

The physical efficiency test will now be only qualifying in nature and no additional points will be awarded even if a candidate performs way above the qualification standards. A Home Ministry statement on Sunday said all the question papers for the written examination for these selections would be set at the central level.

The new measures come two months after a senior Inspector General of Police in the CRPF serving in Bihar, along with a number of his accomplices, were arrested by the CBI for allegedly having taken money from candidates to ensure a job in the CRPF. This was the second such scandal in the largest para-military force in the country in three months. In February this year, a CRPF DIG was arrested from Lucknow on charges of carrying out a similar fraud in Uttar Pradesh.

The new selection rules ensure that officers serving in the state in which the recruitment is being done would not find a place on the recruitment board for that state. Additionally, officers against whom departmental proceedings are pending would be debarred from being associated with the recruitment process. Similarly, officers who have previously been found to be indulging in selection malpractices will be kept away from the recruitment process for at least five years.

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