The Kerala Public Service Commission, which has already lost its credibility due to repeated allegation of nexus with coaching centres, is now facing wrath over copying questions from Pakistan Civil Services exam.
The Kerala administrative exam, conducted for direct recruitment for deputy collector post, has become very popular among students of the state as the government promised the selected candidates would be conferred IAS status in eight years. This year 3.40 Lakh applicants- the closer the number of candidates appear for civil services despite later being All India exam- appeared for the exam, which says a lot about the popularity of KAS exam.
The Congress legislator, PT Thomas, has alleged that six questions in the KAS preliminary exam were copied from the Pakistan civil services exam conducted in 2001.
“This is a grave lapse on the part of the state PSC. The government should order a probe into this incident,” said Thomas.
The former PSC chairman Dr KS Radhakrishnan has criticized the current administration and said: “Lifting of questions from the Pakistan civil service exam is a grave lapse and it cannot be justified.”
M K Sakeer, the chairman of Kerala PSC, who took over the post in October 2016 for a five-year term- after Pinarayi Vijayan led Left Democratic Front came to power in May 2016- defended the PSC and said that allegations are being made to tarnish the image of the esteemed institution. “The question papers have been prepared by experts in the country and the PSC does not have any control over them. The topic of public administration is the same everywhere in the world… As those questions were in the theory section, they could be asked in any exam in any country. There is nothing wrong in questions from one exam appearing in another exam…,” he said.
The PSC is already under scanner for the corruption and graft in the KAS exam. A section of aspirants alleged that the question paper was leaked by a coaching lobby having close links with PSC officials, who are appointee of Communist government.
It has been three and a half years of Sakeer’s tenure at PSC and under his watch, the public image of the institution has deteriorated. The probe by state government found that coaching institutes run by two officials of the public administration department- Shibu Nair and Ranjan Raj- were luring the aspirants with an insinuation of having link the body that prepares question papers.
The PSC came under fire last year too when it was revealed that two leaders of SFI- the student wing of CPM- emerged as topper of police constable exam through malpractices. Later these leaders were found to be involved in a murder case after which the PSC removed them from list of selected candidates.
