Lucknow, June 12: Marking its dissent against the government's decision to open up lateral entry into the bureaucracy, the Uttar Pradesh IAS Association questioned the move, saying such appointments could be manipulated.

The Association chief, Alok Kumar said the organisation will convene a meeting to discuss the issue and submit its apprehensions before the government in a formal manner.

The lateral recruitment to the bureaucracy -- a first of its kind of initiative in independent India -- was unveiled on Saturday by the Department of Personnel & Training.

In its latest advertisement issued for 10 Joint Secretary Posts, the DoPT has permitted applications from those in the private sector, provided they have 15 years of experience and have crossed 40 years of age as of July 1, 2018.

A senior UP government officer, part of the Association, said on the condition of anonymity that the appointments could be "manipulated".

To support his point, the officer told HT: "No independent agency like the UPSC is going to carry out the selection of 10 joint secretaries. There will be no examination and government has kept the powers of appointment to itself. This raises serious doubts and may lead to selection of favourites."

According to Alok Ranjan, former UP Chief Secretary, those from the private sector may not be well equipped to handle the tasks which a Joint Secretary is assigned to by the respective Central Ministries. "Anybody having experience of selling toothpaste or working in a specific field cannot be useful to work as joint secretary with the central government," he said, adding that an IAS who gets cleared by UPSC works in an all-round manner to keep "narrow vision" at check.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 12, 2018 04:21 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).