A tale of two scams — PPSC and HPSC

Almost uncannily akin to this low quality of interviews are the instances given by students who appeared in the Haryana Civil Services (HCS) interviews conducted by the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) in December 2010,which have also been challenged in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In their petition,several unsuccessful candidates have alleged that HPSC members asked them frivolous questions and their interviews lasted barely a few minutes.

“I was asked why terrorists are generally Muslims and where do you find kala teetar in Haryana,” says Syed Waquar Haider,a candidate who appeared in the HCS interview. He was given 10 marks out of 75,even though he had scored 394 marks out of 600 in the written examination and was among the top scorers.

Allegations of irregularities in both these selections relate mainly to the interview,which being the subjective criterion was allegedly used by commission members to select candidates for considerations other than merit.

The PPSC did not hold any written test for the selection of doctors. It assigned 50 marks for the candidate’s academic record and another 50 for the interview. Notwithstanding the marks a student had scored academically,the range of marks given in the interview was so high that interview became the main criterion for the final selection.

The HPSC,following an order of the Supreme Court that the interview marks cannot constitute more than 12.5 per cent of the total marks for selection to HCS,first held a written test of 600 marks and then set aside 75 marks for the interview. But just like the PPSC,the range of marks given in the interview was so arbitrary that it changed the entire merit list. Some candidates who had scored low marks in the written test were given over 65 marks out of 75 in the interview,while many who had scored high in the mains were given 11 to 20 marks in the interview.

To top this,the conduct of the members during the interviews was allegedly far from professional. While as many as 74 candidates were found to have been interviewed by a single member in PPSC,in case of HPSC,candidates alleged that members kept coming in and going out of the interview room,some even using mobile phones.

While PPSC had a medical expert for some of the interviews,there was no outside expert for HCS interviews. “An HPSC member had come with a chit from which he was reading out the questions. Every time an answer was given,he would look at the chit again to see if it was correct,” said Seema Kaushal,an HCS candidate.

The VB has,in its PPSC report,pointed out that the final award lists of several candidates were overwritten or cut to increase or decrease the marks. In the HCS selections,too,one of the main allegations is that HPSC seems to have marked candidates after the interviews were over. An analysis of the final award sheets of the candidates has revealed a pattern of “cluster” marking among the unsuccessful candidates. Those with same marks in the written have scored exactly the same marks in interview,the total being just a mark or two short of the cut-off mark.

Both PPSC and HPSC selections also reek of favoritism. While in the PPSC,the daughter and son-in-law of a then sitting judge,son of a sitting judge,wives of IPS and IAS officers,son of an IAS officer and grandson of a minister were among those selected,in the HPSC,the chairman’s daughter,a member’s son,another member’s daughter-in-law,son and daughter of IAS officers are among those selected.