Karnataka govt to cut powers of KPSC members

Karnataka Law Minister J C Madhuswamy on Wednesday defended the government’s plan to reduce marks for the interviews or personality tests conducted by the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) from 50 to 25.

“We have done this to cut the discretionary powers of the KPSC members who act in a very biassed manner,” Madhuswamy told the Assembly, replying to a calling attention notice by senior JD(S) MLA AT Ramaswamy.

The government has invited objections on reducing marks for interview during recruitment of gazetted probationers.

“Marks were being given indiscriminately as if there’s no connection between the scores of the written test and the interviews. This, despite having subject experts on the committee and taking other measures,” Madhuswamy said.

Reducing marks for the interviews will help meritorious students, he argued.

“We want to reduce the gap in marks so that merit students who do well in the written tests are not put to hardship. And, because this is viva, we can’t even ask why someone scored low. So, we have done this to ensure that the real toppers of the written exam are selected,” he explained.

According to Madhuswamy, some major exams have just 10 marks for interviews.

“Some people have argued that reducing the interview marks will hit rural students. I argue that rural candidates do well in the written exams because of their hard work, but lag behind when it comes to the interview because they are weak in communication and speaking,” he said. “What one needs for administration is common sense and training,” he added.

The minister pointed out that the government had removed viva for some Group A and B posts involving engineers, doctors and agriculture graduates.

Madhuswamy, however, specified that the reduction in the interview marks was not final. “We have invited objections. Let the objections come and then we’ll rethink,” he said.

Earlier, Ramaswamy asked the government why interviews are needed at all for a competitive exam. "In 2006, I had exposed the flaws in KPSC, especially the basis on which marks were given. Is it right to cut off the nose because of a cold?”

Ramaswamy also criticised the government over KPSC employees. “They’ve been there for so long! Some of them are involved in leaking question papers,” he alleged, adding that KPSC member should be picked from a collegium instead of the government appointing them.

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