PSC Chairman K S Radhakrishnan has held the panel of experts, comprising university professors and faculty members of government colleges, responsible for preparing questions which are confusing to the candidates.
Speaking to ‘Express’ on the controversy over wrong answer key prepared for the Secretariat Assistant examination conducted in January, 2013, the rank list of which is to be published on April 8, he said that the PSC had practically no role in preparing questions and the answer keys once the panel of question setters was decided.
Explaining the procedure, he said the question setters who provide the questions submit them in sealed covers to the PSC Secretary without any identification mark on the packet. The Secretary will pick up one of the sealed covers and hand it over to the Government Press. Packets containing 20 question papers each will be provided to the invigilators at the examination halls. Once the question setters submit the questions, it will be the candidates who see them first. The expert panel will assess the answers and prepare the answer key which will be published soon after the exam. If any answer given is found wrong it will be deleted and if more than 20 questions are found to be incorrect, the examination itself will be cancelled, the PSC Chairman said.
When the answersheets are scanned, there is only remote chance of errors creeping in. The chances of error during scanning is 1 out of 6000 while chances of erroneous scrutiny is 20 to 30 per cent while it is done manually, he said.
Referring to the controversy over wrong answers in the answer key, the Chairman said that seven questions were found to be erroneous and all of them were deleted.
Responding to the criticism that he was instrumental in doing away with the previous model of conducting preliminary and final exams and interview for the Secretariat Assistant’s post, Radhakrishnan said the demand for such a process was not justifiable. He said that the candidates being selected through various LDC tests being conducted by the PSC have the prospect of being conferred IAS in the future and getting promoted to the post of Government Secretary, while those getting selected for Secretariat Assistants’ posts have the prospects of getting promotion up to the rank of Additional Secretary.
In the Revenue Department, the LD clerk has got the chances of getting promoted to the post of Director or being conferred IAS, he said. There is only a single examination for the police sub inspector post also.
‘’And moreover, the Chairman cannot take a unilateral decision. Besides the Chairman, there are 17 members in the Commission and it is pointless to argue that someone had unduly influenced a decision of the Commission,’’ Radhakrishnan said.
However, a top official of the Personal and Administraytive Reforms Department(P and ARD), on condition of anonimity, told ‘Express’ that Secretariat Assistants have also got chances for getting IAS confered along with other department staff members.
‘’It is a fact that deputy collectors in Revenue Department have got more chances to get IAS confered compared to other departments, including the Secretariat. But that does not mean that the posts require people with lesser skills,’’ he said referring to the PSC’s decision to do away with the discriptive test and interview.
He said that at least 25 per cent of the candidates got appointed through screening and discriptive tests were found to be unfit for the post and one could imagine the stuff of those who get recruited thorugh a relatively easy system.
