VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) is taking steps to avoid question paper leakage in competitive examinations. A group of APPSC officials have visited prestigious institutions like IIT and IIM which are successfully conducting national level competitive examinations.
APPSC Group 1 Mains are going to be held from February 4 to 16 and the officials are planning to implement the best practices to avoid question paper leakage. Earlier, there were allegations of question paper leakage by outsourcing staff and many candidates alleged involvement of APPSC officials in it.
For the record, the APPSC has around 30 per cent of outsourcing employees.Speaking to TNIE, APPSC secretary PSR Anjaneyulu said, “There were allegations of question paper leakage for almost every APPSC examination. Every time, the recruitment process gets delayed due to court cases following the allegations. We have been studying the best practices to end question paper leakage. For this, we have visited IITs, IIMs and other States.”
Since 2014, after the State bifurcation, no recruitment was conducted to fill vacancies in the APPSC, which has a sanctioned strength of 200, including secretaries, drivers and attendants. The APPSC now has only 108 regular employees and 68 are working in the commission on an outsourcing basis. When asked about the alleged involvement of outsourcing employees in question paper leakage, Anjaneyulu said, “We cannot say that the outsourcing employees are involved in question paper leakage. It can also happen through any staff.” APPSC Group I Mains are going to be held in total seven sessions from February 4 to 16. Earlier APPSC Group 1 Mains were scheduled from December 12 to 23. The screening test was held in May.