The “faultlines” in Public Service Commissions in NE
states - Recent APPCS ‘fiasco’ worrisome trend.
Background
Repeated goof-ups
by the public service commissions of the Northeast states in conducting the
prestigious public service examinations have resulted in staging of dharnas and
litigations, including the arrest of high-ranking officials from the
commission’s offices in the neighboring state recently and now in APPCS . The
alleged ‘fiascos’ have caused massive uproar in the media, including the social
media, and even instances of arson at APPCS office and attacks on the members of the public
service commission occurred (when I was the SP in Itanagar).
Hundreds of
aspirants have expressed deep anguish, and the image of the commissions has
been tarnished. However, it seems to me that scrambling, knee-jerk reactions is
a worrisome trend. After all, the benign constitutional objective of the public
service commissions is to fearlessly select the most eligible brains of the
time for high-ranking public offices – persons who would spend their lives in
the public services and would serve as the permanent machinery for the
implementation of schemes for the progress of the society.
We cannot afford
to tinker with this cardinal pillar stone of our society. History is witness
that civilizations like the Roman, the Greece, the Mauryan and the British, who
ruled for centuries, had robust, transparent, egalitarian systems for
recruiting the best and the most intelligent citizens as permanent governance
officials. The day the systems were tinkered with by unscrupulous elements at
the helms of affairs, disastrous results ensued, and the mighty civilizations
collapsed due to chicanery, favouritism and mediocrity, with merit thrown to
the air.
EXPERIENCES
Apart from my
routine police job, I was a member of the viva voce board of the Arunachal
Pradesh Public Service Commission thrice, and I conducted a special recruitment
of candidates from the eight northeastern states for Delhi Police within one
month, right from advertisement to declaration of results, in all eight NE
state capitals.
“FAULT Lines”
Too many unbelievably
unfair means are adopted during examinations which have grey areas where
fissures for an unequal competitive milieu emerge. These ‘fault lines’, as
perceived by the candidates, are:
1. Unprofessional
approach and lack of foolproof setting of questions papers; lackadaisical
checking of answer papers; and scope for awarding marks at whims and fancies
due to lack of straight-jacketed guidelines or double-checking of answers by
other subject experts to find imbalances and discrepancies.
2. Leakage of questions
papers before examinations.
3. Disparity in
awarding marks. Arts students can never get 100% whereas science students can
easily score 100%. Even during the time of my IPS training along with IAS and
IFS trainees, most trainees were from the science background.
4. Unfair means of
cheating, such as using tiny Bluetooth devices connected to persons outside the
examination halls, impersonating for someone in the examinations, copying in
the examination halls or in the bathrooms, etc.
5. Emergence of
middlemen (especially for subordinate jobs) who somehow try to woo gullible
candidates, promising selection in lieu of cash or in connivance with staffers
of the commission.
6. Lack of
holistic planning of recruitment for jobs. Sometimes hundreds of jobs are advertised
in a particular year and then there is no recruitment for a few years, thereby
depriving the brightest youths during the no-recruitment years. Many bright
Arunachalee students have confided in me personally of this situation which has
resulted in candidates becoming overage or being unable to compete with fresh
graduates. Sometimes yearly recruitment is conducted at random for various
reasons, depriving many bright youths of joining the elite state services.
7. Too many marks
allotted for interview. Such huge marking for the interview round can topple
the ranks and even eliminate the toppers in the written examinations.
8. Untrained
personnel manning the supposedly hallowed public service commissions, right
from the top to the bottom of the hierarchy. Lack of specific training for the
specialized jobs adds to the problem.
9. Lack of latest
know-how and technology to ensure foolproof confidentiality and to effectively
hinder leakages. The personnel manning these commissions should be put under
hawkish supervision and surveillance.
10. Outsourcing to
the state departments or allowing the department concerned to conduct
recruitment for vacancies in the respective department is another bottomless
black hole where department officials are virtually given a free hand for
recruitment. No wonder that recently, one department selected all its lower
subordinate officials from a particular sub-clan from a particular village. The
officer who was in charge of the recruitment was from that particular tribe.
11. Lack of
interactive social media forum for FAQs (frequently asked questions or queries)
to allay doubts about the process, syllabus application, results, etc.
12. Lack of
orientation and induction training for members of the commission and the staff
and officials of the state public service commission.
13. Lack of
background or proven experience of members of the commission and staff matters
the most. Rigorous scrutiny is sine qua non for manning the hallowed
institution.
14. No
feedback/stock-taking after every examination for better conducting future
examinations.
15. Lack of an
annual calendar for recruitment by the commission to ensure advance planning
for logistics, secrecy, technology, foolproof papers, etc.
16. Unavailability
of IT-based personnel to devise or delve into the latest know-how for advance
planning, precision execution, and data bank generation-cum-storage in secure
domains with the latest impregnable anti-virus apps.
17. Lack of
serious pruning and orientation of members and staff for the entire gamut of
recruitment.
Strategies for Recruitment
1. Conducting
compulsory rigorous induction training, followed by examination (where they
have to qualify) for all the members and staff of the state public service
commission.
2. Seeking
guidance from the UPSC for all operational procedures. Many illustrious
officers who have served in Arunachal are members of the UPSC. Even, why not
bring on deputation those officers who have had successful stints in the UPSC.
Even an Arunachalee officer with a five-year successful stint can be requested
to join as the secretary of the commission.
3. Adopting
time-tested practices in conducting foolproof public service examinations.
4. Need for
critical analysis and feedback for improvement from every examination conducted
by the respective state public service commission.
5. Using the
latest information technology for upgrading databanks for retrieval and
improvisation of arsenal for robust leak-proof conduct of examinations.
6. Preventing
unfair means like impersonation and copying through Bluetooth or Blu-ray by
having impregnable requisite data on the admit cards, like identification mark
on the face, Aadhaar card number, etc; jamming the internet/mobile connection,
using the latest jammer; selecting proven high-integrity subject specialists as
examiners, both for examination days and for evaluation of the papers by two
experts secretly; enhancing the honorarium money per answer sheet for quality
and timely checking of the essay type answers; having tamper-proof assigning
numbers for original roll numbers; ensuring fair play for both arts and science
subjects as arts subjects are very difficult to score marks in, unlike science
and maths subjects.
7. Impact analysis
and all-round stock-taking by the state public service commission, keeping in
view the recent controversy leading to arrests and cancellation of the
examinations, followed by court cases, in many NE states and other states.
8. The marks
awarding system during viva voce needs rethinking. There is no justification
column in the viva voce format for giving very high marks to a candidate. As a
result, there exists ample scope to favour a candidate by the members of the
viva voce board.
The board members
for viva voce should be kept secret and there should be rotation or rostering
of viva voce in the last minutes to avoid prior lobbying or any external
pressure for giving more marks in the interviews.
Permanent marker
pens should be used for awarding marks at viva voce, with full signature of the
board members, and the average of the board members should be calculated
immediately by the chairman of the board in the presence of other members.
The marks awarded
should also be written in words, duly signed on the mark sheet of viva voce by
all members.
No pencil or ink
pen should be allowed to prevent any tampering or manipulation of the mark
sheets. Only permanent markers should be used for marking.
Any viva voce
member awarding high marks to any candidate must justify the reason for giving
the high mark.
9. Only persons of
proven integrity and having some exposure to the recent trends in
administration (civil, military, security, management or judiciary) should be
appointed to this august cradle of breeding public servants who would be in the
services for life.
10. No videography
during whole recruitment process.
11.Why not request
UPSC for training of public services examinations conduction for all APPSC
officers and members from Chairman to down the line till peon and chowkidars?
12. Why not select
those highest integrity officials from state services both officers and
clericals staff by giving massive incentive in pecuniary gains for deputation
to APPSC?
Rather than just
getting these officials and clerks on routine basis without stringent
verification of their integrity. Recent arrest of APPCS officers is blot in the
hallowed APPCS.
Some INNOVATIVE ideas I adopted during recruitments
1. All members of
the recruitment team are kept under surveillance to prevent human error and
deter infiltration, leakage, etc.
2. Using different
teams for different jobs, without the knowledge of the other branches.
3. Detailed
arrangement, such as sitting plan, supervisors, nearby toilet facilities,
police bandobast, drinking water; elaborate plan for searching and frisking,
jammer for jamming mobile or internet signal, food packets for staff, medical
team with doctor, arrest party, and mounted CCTV cameras in the examination
centre.
4. Introduction of
biometric fingerprints equipment for candidates. Twelve impersonators were
detected and arrested.
5. Establishing a
24×7 ‘war room’ for any examination one month ahead. It should be manned by an
officer who has all information on FAQs, coordinates and branches on action
taken before the examination.
6. Repeated
rehearsals on ground with all stakeholders including non-commissioned units
like police, centre in-charge, jammer, and keeping enough space between the
candidates.
7. Selection of
only those staff as team whose integrity is beyond doubt.
8. Debriefing,
followed by immediate clearance of all honorariums, and offering appreciation
to excellent performers immediately.
Conclusion
The present
perception of the state public service commission is a wake-up call for serious
introspection, pulling up socks, and taking all steps by all the stakeholders
to allay any misgiving over the constitutional trust bestowed on this
supposedly hallowed commission.
After all, this
commission is dealing in giving birth to the cardinal governance structure
involving the best and the brightest youths who want to serve the society in
their careers for more than 30 years in service.
The earlier the
better, lest it turns into a kind of irreparable conflagration.
(The writer is an IPS officer. The views expressed are his own personal
opinions based on his experiences as Chairman Recruitment Board in United
Nation, Delhi Police and in Arunachal Pradesh)
Prakash Singh/AFP
Mr Ngo Pi Suantak 
