SAI jobs to those who cleared UPSC prelims

Failed to clear the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) civil services examination? Don’t get disheartened. You still have chances of getting a great job in the government sector, provided you cleared the civil services preliminary examination. And, it is the Sports Authority of India (SAI) that has decided to create such an opportunity.

Updated on: May 8, 2011, 23:21:52 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Failed to clear the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) civil services examination? Don’t get disheartened. You still have chances of getting a great job in the government sector, provided you cleared the civil services preliminary examination. And, it is the Sports Authority of India (SAI) that has decided to create such an opportunity.

This week, the SAI called for applications for the post of additional directors in the authority. However, only those who had cleared the UPSC civil service preliminary are eligible.

These are class-1 category jobs and the salary is at par with those who clear civil service exams. Every year, nearly four lakh students apply for civil service examination and half of them appear in the preliminary exam.

About 11,500, who clear preliminary examination, will be eligible to apply for these posts in SAI.

The UPSC calls about 2,000 of these people for personal interviews. And SAI may have to grapple with a huge number of applications as also those who cleared preliminary exams in the past will apply too.

The SAI’s unique eligibility for filling up the administrative posts is also a typical case of the government’s one arm not knowing what the other is doing.

Sports Minister Ajay Maken has already put on hold a similar exercise being conducted by the youth affairs department, which is a part of the sports and youth affairs ministry.

The department last year had invited applications for appointment of coordinators in over 100 districts for managing the Nehru Yuva Kendras and Youth Clubs. At that time too, the criteria for the class-1 job was the same as SAI has advertised this time.

By the time Maken took charge of the ministry earlier this year, the department had scanned hundreds of applications and decided that only those who have cleared the civil services main examination will be considered.

Maken’s approval was sought but he kept the decision on hold. He had said that a large number of eligible youth, who may not have appeared in civil services exam, have been denied the opportunity to appear for the interview. However, no final decision has so far been taken.

SAI’s seeking to appoint officials on the basis of this criteria, which has now been almost discarded, has baffled officials in the ministry.

“It is strange that the minister’s views on appointment of youth coordinators were not communicated to the authority,” a senior official said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.