To ensure fair selection process in regional rural banks (RRB), the government on Friday said the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) will handle all direct recruitments for these banks.

The government also raised the age limit by two years to 30 for candidates applying for officers scale-I posts.

The government was receiving various queries from candidates, RRBs and NABARD regarding some shortcomings in the recruitment process, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

In this regard, the government has made "improvements" for making the recruitment process smooth.

"IBPS will now handle all direct recruitments for RRBs in different posts / scales including the conduct of interviews and issue of final result. So as to ensure fair selection process, the interview Boards have now been made independent of the bank management and would be decided by IBPS in consultation with NABARD," it added.

The Common Written Examination for recruitment of Office Assistants (Multipurpose), Officers Scale-I, II and III in RRBs is being conducted by IBPS.

The release further said the candidates will now indicate their choices for the RRBs and the local language proficiency would be checked at the time of interview.

"The upper age limit for Officers Scale-I has now been raised from 28 years to 30 years to make it in consonance with that for Public Sector Banks...The candidates between the age group of 28 and 30 years will now be able to apply for the post of Officer Scale-I in RRBs," the Ministry said.


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The changes will facilitate the fair selection process, eliminate the possibility of multiple selection and also reduce the attrition rate in RRBs, it added.

This changes will also enable those candidates to apply for the posts of Office Assistant and Officer Scale-I in RRBs, who have not studied the local language at 10th Standard but have proficiency in the local language.