KPSC: CM Siddaramaiah promises UPSC-like reforms

Bengaluru: Conceding systemic flaws in the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC), Chief Minister Siddaramaiah assured the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday that steps would be taken to conduct exams and recruitment on the lines of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

The CM was replying to the debate on the state of affairs in the KPSC, including flawed translations of Kannada questions in the KPSC Gazetted Probationers examination twice and the irregularities in the recruitment of Assistant Executive Engineers (AEE) in the Rural Drinking Water and Cleanliness Department, which have led to widespread discontent among aspirants.

Siddaramaiah said they would seriously consider reducing the number of KPSC members from the current 16. He said they would form a search committee to recruit honest members to the KPSC.

The CM was angered that despite the experts’ committee of the KPSC finding 10 mistakes in the Kannada question papers and ordering a re-exam, six mistakes had been found again.

The chief minister said those who had erroneously translated questions from English to Kannada will be “blacklisted”. He also suggested disciplinary and criminal action against the guilty.

He also felt the mechanism of setting question papers must be reversed. “Papers are first set in English and then translated to Kannada. I have told them that it should be reversed so that students answering in Kannada are not affected.”

Siddaramaiah even stated that he would not dispute Leader of the Opposition R Ashoka’s claim that the KPSC was a “disease-ridden” agency.

However, the CM argued that the government had limited powers over the KPSC since the latter was a constitutional body. He also pointed out that flaws in the KPSC had also persisted during the BJP era.

In response, BJP leaders insisted that there had been 58 mistakes in the first question paper, which increased to 78 in the succeeding one. They also slammed the KPSC for using Google Translate to translate questions from English to Kannada.

The CM said they could not order re-exams since both the matters were sub judice (the gazetted probationers’ matter is before the KAT, while the AEE recruitment is pending before the high court).