Corrupt PSCs rob youth of aspirations

Eight years after the formation of the Telangana state, recruitment exams for Group 1 posts were announced by the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) in 2022. When the notification came, the dream of serving the state was rekindled in Naveen* (36), a resident of Hyderabad.

The exams were conducted between October 2022 and March 2023 to fill 503 Group 1 posts along with 833 other vacancies in the state government. Close to 4 lakh aspirants appeared for the preliminary round of the Group 1 exams alone.

Read | Question paper leak could impact prospects of ruling parties

But lakhs of dreams soon came crashing down when the state government had to cancel the exams following a question paper leak in March of this year. Several government officials have since been implicated in the case.

Naveen explains the devastating impact of the chain of events. He quit his job two years ago to completely dedicate time to exam preparation, risking the financial security of his wife and seven-year-old son. “I did not clear the 2012 Group 1 exams conducted before the split of Andhra Pradesh. I waited for 11 years for another opportunity. In the end, we felt the system cheated us and humiliated our efforts,” he says.

The TSPSC held a re-exam in May-June, by which time aspirants were already distressed mentally, with uncertainty looming. Many had vacated their rented accommodations in Ashraf Nagar, Hyderabad, the hub of coaching centres for civil services exams. Those who did appear wrote the exam with subdued interest — the candidates now had a trust deficit in the system.

“I keep wondering if the scam would repeat during the main round of the exam. That would be a further waste of my time. I was supposed to continue with dedicated preparations until then. But now, I have decided to get back to my job immediately. At least, I will have a back-up,” Naveen adds.

Investigations revealed that a staff member of the TSPSC had colluded with an employee of an external agency. The agency had copied question papers to a pen drive and shared it with aspirants through middlemen. One of the accused used ChatGPT to find answers and then relayed them to an aspirant through bluetooth earbuds.

The plight of aspirants in Telangana is comparable to that of the candidates who appeared for government recruitment exams in Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh.

Karnataka, too, is no stranger to recruitment scams. In 2021, two cases were registered in connection with cheating in the Karnataka Public Services Commission (KPSC) exam.

The state was recruiting 660 assistant engineers for the Public Works Department.

In a bigger scam in 2011, irregularities were found in recruitment exams for 362 gazetted probationers’ posts in which several KPSC members, including the former chairperson of the commission, were implicated.

It was only in 2022, that the state government, through the Karnataka Civil Services (Validation of Selection and Appointment of 2011 batch Gazetted Probationers) Bill, 2022, legitimised the appointment of 362 candidates who were selected in the 2011 exam.

Over the years, question paper leaks and recruitment scams related to state public service commissions (PSCs) have become a norm rather than an exception.

“One of the most notorious things about state PSCs is corruption. It is taken for granted that you cannot get in without buying into the system. That includes different forms of helping the favoured few in terms of question paper leaks or bias in interviews. There is extraordinary anarchy in the process,” explains Professor Babu Mathew, former registrar and faculty of National Law School of India University.

An overwhelming majority of people believe that government jobs offer more security, as there is little risk of being “fired”, Mathew points out. With much expectation on state jobs to provide equitable employment to youth, why are PSCs unable to rein in malpractice?

Ghanta Chakrapani, chairperson of the standing committee on State Public Service Commissions and former TSPSC chairperson, observes that paper leaks are not new but their details have changed over the last two decades.

In the past, organised gangs were involved in these scams. These groups stole papers from the printing press. However, in the modern age, the chain of composition of question papers and their distribution is secure. Now, it is the insiders who are involved, he says, attributing it to apathy on part of the staff.

High pressure

The TSPSC, for instance, uses advanced technology to maintain candidate confidentiality at all levels. Beginning with the application to issuing of hall tickets, the system is designed to enable candidates to prevent external intervention. Even during the interview process, the panelists can only see the code and not the name of the interviewee.

Albeit the precautionary measures, the question papers still leak, Chakrapani adds.

Consecutive question paper leaks have posed the question — if the faults are in the security of the processes of the exams or in the social pressure attached to bagging government jobs.

After all, lakhs of candidates apply for a few hundred posts. This level of pressure builds as state commissions, unlike the UPSC, fail to conduct exams on an annual basis.

“The state commissions do not have centralised data on the number of vacancies. Collecting the vacancy details from each department takes time and hence the recruitment announcements get delayed,” explains a Karnataka government official.

The absence of timely recruitment makes government jobs more prized, leaving scope for irregularities.

Given that aspirants spend the better part of their youth preparing for the exam, delays due to scams are particularly impactful. Umesh*, a 2011 KPSC candidate, tells DH that the KPSC exam had taken centre stage in his life over the past decade. “Over the past two years, I decided to move on to other things in life. I am trying to restart my career as a realtor,” he says.

Human resources

KPSC Secretary Suralkar Vikas Kishor says the need of the hour is to strengthen human resources in the commission. This would help speed up the recruitment process. In KPSC for instance, of the 330 sanctioned posts, 180 are filled.

However, the requirement is for 1000 working hands. At the present staff strength, it would take two years to complete one recruitment process.

Chakrapani also points out two prominent structural problems with the PSCs which make them unwieldy: There is no law compelling the state PSCs to conduct exams annually and there is no monitoring body at the national level and hence, each commission follows a different pattern.

Besides, PSCs are dragged down by political appointments, alleges Rajasthan-based activist Upen Yadav, who has been fighting against the corruption in the Rajasthan Public Services Commission (RPSC). “The RPSC has members related to ruling party leaders. Political appointments have to stop. When BJP comes to power it will appoint its people and a similar trend continues with the Congress.”

He bats for a tough law with stringent punishment for those caught in exam malpractices.

In the recent case of a paper leak concerning the Grade II teachers’ exam, more than 100 accused were taken into police custody. “But, all of them are now out of jail. They are politically powerful and know how to rig the system,” Yadav says.

Anil Swarup, former secretary, Government of India, who has authored books such as ‘Not just a civil servant’ and ‘Ethical dilemmas of a civil servant’, says that it is important to retain a robust recruitment system and restore public faith as government jobs are extremely important in an evolving democracy.

“Both government and private sectors have to work together to make the system more efficient. Private sector’s efficiency and the government’s scale should come together. As for the public service commissions, it would be helpful if the UPSC chairman could call a meeting of all the state PSCs’ chairpersons to discuss good practices,” he says.

A former member of the KPSC sums it up, “The laws and rules are aplenty. It is important to have the right people at the helm of affairs. It is also important to ensure that there is no undue interference from politicians in the functioning of the commission.”

(*Names of candidates have been changed on request to maintain anonymity)