Following discrepancies in the allotment of marks during interviews by the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) while recruiting candidates for various gazetted posts, the State government has accepted the several recommendations made by the P.C. Hota committee, including the one on constituting an interview board presided over by the KPSC chairman and four advisors.
Advisors would preferably be drawn from outside the State, from among the retired members of the all India services and retired members of the Central Service Group A.
A State Cabinet meeting last week accepted a majority of the recommendations of the committee. The committee had been set up to recommend reforms to ensure accountability and better transparency in the recruitment process by the KPSC.
In its 58-page report, the committee said that the advisors should have retired at least in the higher administrative grade (that is equivalent to the grade of principal secretary to a State government or of an equivalent rank for the Gazetted Probationers’ interview and Secretary to a State government or an equivalent rank for the interview of other posts).
The committee said that the four advisors, a majority of them preferably from outside the State, would include a few reputed academic administrators such as retired vice-chancellors of Central universities; retired professors of Indian Institute of Technology; retired professors of Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi; retired professors of the National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, or other retired professors in training institutes of the Union government located in different parts of the country.
Grading
To eliminate possible subjectivity in the assessment of candidates, the committee recommended that the KPSC would circulate a note among the chairman and advisors of the Interview Board that on the basis of performance in the interview, a candidate could be categorised as outstanding (70 per cent and above), very good (60 per cent to 70 per cent), good (50 per cent to 60 per cent), average (40 per cent to 50 per cent) and poor (less than 40 per cent).
The chairman can ask each one of the four advisors their opinion about the grading of the candidate after the candidate leaves the venue of the interview. The chairman of the Interview Board and the four advisors would individually allot marks out of the maximum total marks in the interview test to a candidate.
Candidates for the interview would be called in the ratio of three:one vacancy as it is now.
Each one of the candidates would be interviewed ideally for 25 to 30 minutes and instead of calling 25 candidates per day for the interview, only nine five in the forenoon and four in the afternoon — would be invited. Every week, the presiding members and advisors of the Interview Board will be changed by the chairman of the KPSC, the committee said.
