KPSC needs to be overhauled, made credible

The controversy-ridden Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) is once again in the news for the wrong reasons, with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah having to order cancellation of the recently-held examination for recruitment of over 350 gazetted officers.

This follows outrage over the poor translation of questions from English to Kannada, which left the exam-takers confused and unable to answer them.

Over two lakh candidates had appeared for the examination. According to exam-takers from Kannada-medium backgrounds, who bore the brunt of this botch-up, about 50 questions were wrongly translated.  With the Chief Minister’s office receiving over 20,000 complaints on the matter, Siddaramaiah has ordered that re-examination be held within two months to “ensure fairness to all candidates”.  

The Chief Minister has also ordered that those responsible for the lapse should be relieved of their duties. Wrongly-translated questions in a competitive examination is the height of incompetence and callousness. The government should initiate strong punitive action against all those responsible.

The KPSC, which is a centralised agency for state government recruitments, has over the years become synonymous with inefficiency, incompetence and corruption, with one scam or irregularity after another tumbling out of its closet.

A CID inquiry into the irregularities in recruitment in 2013 had found that as many as 15 per cent of the aspirants had paid bribes ranging from Rs 45 lakh to Rs 75 lakh.

There have also been instances of examination results being unduly delayed, sometimes by as much as five years, putting the candidates to unnecessary hardship.

The support and political patronage enjoyed by successive KPSC chairmen and members have only emboldened them. In fact, in 2021 the then Bommai government, instead of prosecuting the KPSC chairman for various acts of omission and commission, withdrew the sanction for prosecution that had been granted earlier.

Early this year, KPSC secretary Latha Kumari was abruptly transferred out after she locked horns with the chairman over irregularities in certain appointments. In fact, two other IAS officers who had attempted to streamline the system were similarly transferred. 

The KPSC has lost credibility because its successive chairmen and members are appointed not on merit but based on political and caste considerations.

Total indiscipline marks the functioning of the body, which does not even have a calendar of events for conduct of examinations and announcement of results.

Due to the lack of accountability, the aspiring candidates as well as government departments which are looking at filling vacancies, have lost faith in the commission. It is high time the government overhauled the commission and appointed credible people of integrity to all posts in the body.