The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : PSC to go slow on interview plan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 04, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

PSC to go slow on interview plan

C. Gouridasan Nair

To launch campaign to allay fears

PSC chairman M. Gangadhara Kurup says the proposed interviews would not result in distortion of the selection process.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Faced with strident opposition from different quarters, the Kerala Public Service Commission (KPSC) has resolved to go slow with the proposed interviews for Assistant Grade II/Auditor selection. The Commission has also decided to launch a campaign to allay fears about the new measure and create awareness about the need to incorporate interviews as a component of the selection process.

The list of persons who have cleared the written examination for the post has been published. It would be open for scrutiny for a month now. The interview, if the PSC finally decides to stick to its earlier decision, would be held sometime in August. Being a Constitutional entity, the Commission has its limitations in pushing the reform forward in the face of opposition, but it has been in touch informally with leaders of various organisations to ensure their backing for the measure.

Talking to The Hindu here today, PSC chairman M. Gangadhara Kurup said the proposed interview for Assistant Grade II/Auditor selection would not result in distortion in the selection process. According to him, those who objected to the decision to make the interview a component of the selection process were speaking out of ignorance about the whole issue.

Only a few posts coming under the ambit of the PSC recruitment system were being filled without interview and the Assistant Grade II/Auditor post was one of them. The Commission had not been able to hold interviews for these posts, as the number of candidates appearing for the tests had all along been unmanageably high as had been the case with the selection of Lower Division Clerks (LDCs) for the 100-odd Government departments spread over the entire State. Since around 25,000 persons figure in the district-wise ranklists prepared after the written test, the PSC could never hope to conduct interviews for the post.

Although the Assistant Grade II/Auditor post also belonged to this category, the Commission had found that interviews could be conducted by adopting appropriate methodologies. Interviews were also considered necessary because these are people who would rise to be Additional Secretaries one day and a few among them might well be conferred with IAS rank. "One or two of them would become secretaries of the PSC and many would be joining this office. Shouldn't we know what kind of persons they are," he asked.

The PSC chairman pointed out that the selection procedure has been revamped this time. Unlike in the past, two types of tests were conducted for the 2.20 lakh applicants. The first was an objective type test and the top 10,000 rank-holders were later given a descriptive type test to shortlist 1,544 candidates for the final selection. This has never been done in the history of the Commission. Names of all these candidates would figure in the final rank-list, though their ranks would change after the interview.

Mr. Kurup said the Commission has taken elaborate precautions to ensure that the interview does not in any way be used to the advantage of any particular candidate. Although 20 marks have been set apart for interview, the interview board would be able to give marks only within a specific range exceeding the 50 per cent mark only by a narrow margin. The marks would be awarded by consensus.

The interview board would have five members, three of them PSC members, one outside expert and a Government nominee. The senior-most PSC member would chair the board. There would be five such boards and they would conduct the interview for eight days continuously. The marks obtained by the shortlisted candidates would not be communicated to the members either before or during the interview. The lists of candidates that go before the various interview boards on each day would be decided only on the morning of the interview so as to prevent favouritism of any kind. The Chairman would shuffle the lists and distribute the lists for each day at random among the five boards. This method had been adopted when interviews were held to select Sub-Inspectors and had been found to be quite effective.

No interview board member would be allowed to carry paper or mobile phones to the interview room and would not be allowed to make any jotting other than on the marksheets provided to them.

The marks awarded to candidates till noon would be sealed and sent to the secret section of the PSC immediately after the morning session. The same would be done on conclusion of a day's interviews.

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