Surveyors get postings despite failing internal test

 A majority of land surveyors recruited by the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) have been found ineligible to do the survey job by the Department of Survey Settlement and Land Records (DSSLR).

Ironically, as many as 1,182 surveyors of the total 1,669 recruited have failed eligibility test conducted recently by the DSSLR after providing six months of intense training.

 Among the candidates who have failed include those who secured top 10 ranks in the examination conducted by the KEA. However, the government went ahead with issuing the appointment letters and had even given postings to all the candidates, official sources said.

The freshly recruited candidates underwent training between November 2013 and April, 2014 at four centres - Mysore, Gulbarga, Dharwad and Tumkur. The DSSLR’s eligibility test comprised four theory and practical papers each of 100 marks.

 The papers were in Kannada language. The minimum marks required to  clear the test was 60. A majority of the candidates have failed in the theory papers (mainly Electronic Total Station, Computers and Chain and Cross Staff Survey). The recruitment process started in October 2011, official sources said.

The process was delayed for almost one-and-half years as the government received complaints of malpractice in the KEA’s examination. It was complained that the KEA’s question papers were leaked and many of the candidates had submitted fake documents. The eligibility criteria for appearing for surveyors examination was PUC (mathematics) with minimum two years experience as licensed surveyors or JOC in survey. A departmental inquiry was conducted into the complaints.

The then Divisional Commissioner of Mysore division, who conducted the inquiry, had recommended the government to order a CID investigation into the complaints. But the government, which was under pressure to recruit surveyors, turned a blind eye. 

People across the State, especially those who own agricultural lands, have been facing hardship due to the shortage of land surveyors. The government had not recruited the surveyors for 15 long years. Survey of land is must for bifurcation of agricultural properties. 

Govt in tricky situation 

Having issued the appointment letters, the government is now faced with a tricky situation.

 It is understood that efforts are being made to reduce the minimum eligibility marks to 40 so that those who have failed can get through in the second chance.

Commissioner for DSSLR Ritvik Ranjanam Pandey, however, said that it was only an internal examination and the failed surveyors will get the second attempt to clear it. He also said there was no plan to reduce minimum qualifying marks to 40 in the test scheduled on October 13.