THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Perturbed by the recent financial crisis and the government’s effort to encroach upon its powers, disregarding the constitutional status attached to it, the Public Service Commission (PSC) has come out with a proposal to collect Rs 1,000 for issuing service verification certificate from those who get appointed by the PSC.
The full commission sitting held on Monday decided to put forth the proposal to collect the fee as part of abiding by the government’s order issued on December 14, 2010. According to PSC sources, the commission had already given a proposal to collect Rs 100 from each applicant as application fee.
“In the case of 50 lakh applicants applying for government jobs, an application fee worth Rs 100 will help PSC to mobilise Rs 50 crore a year,” a source told ‘Express’.
However, these proposals need to be approved bv the government before implementation.
Besides, the commission has also proposed to charge Rs 500 from the candidates to issue the a duplicate of the certificate given after the ‘one-time certificate verification’. Moreover, the candidate has to produce an affidavit certified by not less than a district judge.
The decision is in view of the large number of candidates irresponsibly handling such certificates.
Another decision is to enhance the number of applicants in the examination hall from 20 to 30. Accordingly, the Alpha code of the question papers also will be revised to ensure that no malpractice is conducted.
However, the fee collected will go to the government exchequer as the PSC has no financial autonomy.
PSC sources said there was nothing new in the decision as it had already been collecting fee for OMR tests and for giving details for RTI applications.
“Kerala PSC is the only PSC in the country not charging fee from applicants. Also, only Kerala PSC conducts such a large number of examinations and issues advice for a large number of candidates a year,” sources said.