THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The allegation of plagiarism against the Public Service Commission (PSC) has landed the body in a spot of bother as some of the question setters have expressed reluctance in preparing questions for the future exams fearing controversy. The PSC came under a barrage of criticism after the Kerala Administrative Service (KAS) preliminary exam.
The criticism was mainly regarding plagiarism. Congress legislator P T Thomas had even alleged that six questions that appeared in the KAS exam were directly copied from Pakistan Civil Service Examination. The opposition had also raised the matter in the ongoing Assembly session raising the heat on PSC.
It’s in this scenario that some of the question setters have informed the PSC that they would like to stop working for the commission. “Some of the experts who prepare question papers have expressed resentment at the way criticism was levelled against the KAS question paper. Since the controversies affect their reputation also, they have conveyed to us their reluctance to prepare questions for us in the future,” said a PSC source.
Meanwhile, sources said if the question setters go ahead with their decision, it might affect several exams, including KAS mains.
“We are worried that if the question setters stick to their words, then KAS mains will have to be pushed back by a month. For setting a question paper, an expert gets only `2,000. Those who are very famous in the academic circle will not be ready to take the allegations in exchange for this paltry amount. Some have conveyed to PSC that they don’t want to run into court cases and controversies,” said the source.