If you can’t pay the hefty bribe for the coveted post of Deputy Superintendent of Police during the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) recruitment, don’t lose heart. You can still make the grade by agreeing to tie the knot with a girl, whose parents will pay the amount in a convenient quid pro quo .
An aspirant, Ajay G., who scored 1,040 out of 1,800 marks in the written examination for the 362 gazetted probationers posts and stood 34t in the results announced on March 16 this year, narrated his experience to The Hindu.
Alliance offer
Before the crucial interview scheduled for April 1, his father Ganesh K.S., a resident of Sampangiramanagar in the city was approached by a tout, who proposed a matrimonial alliance for his son.
“If your family agrees to this alliance, the girl’s father will pay up to 80 per cent of the Rs. 80 lakh to Rs. 90 lakh bribe for his selection to the post of Deputy Superintendent of Police,” Mr. Ganesh said, quoting the tout, incidentally a State government official, who promised to facilitate Mr. Ajay’s selection during the interview owing to his links with KPSC members.
Mr. Ajay and his family spurned the proposal even though the tout had carefully chosen a girl from the same caste.
“She is the only daughter of a Central government employee,” the tout had told Mr. Ganesh, also a government official.
The “alliance” would be mutually beneficial, the tout said, as Mr. Ajay would get the post he desired, while the father of the girl would be assured of a “well-placed” son-in-law.
However, this was denied by IAS officer Gonal Bheemappa, who was KPSC chairman during the conduct of interviews and retired in May this year. He refuted the charges linking the commission or its members to the matrimonial alliance mooted by touts to aspirants.
“It is purely a matrimonial alliance between two families. KPSC is not involved in it. It is an unfair allegation,” he said.
Mr. Ajay appeared for his interview on April 1, as scheduled, and fielded with aplomb the questions ranging from naming of west-flowing rivers to the quantity of drinking water pumped into Bangalore city, posed by the KPSC panel.
Mr. Ajay claimed he was congratulated by the interviewers for having fared well.
But, when the final results were announced, Mr. Ajay said, he was shocked to learn that he had been given 55 out of the 200 marks, and his overall ranking had slipped from 34th to 157th.
“Suddenly, my chances of being selected for the post had become weak,” said Mr. Ajay.
He alleged that the shady matrimonial alliance proposed to him was part of a murky and corrupt deal nicknamed “Thali Bhagya scheme” employed by touts, allegedly in connivance with KPSC members, to extract the bribe from eligible bachelors.
Conversation taped
But, Mr. Ajay and his father said they had audio-recorded the conversations with the tout and would furnish it to the inquiry ordered by the State government into the alleged demand for bribe by KPSC members during the recent recruitment of gazetted probationers’ post.
Dr. Mythri, another aspirant, who went public with her experience of demand for a bribe for the post of Assistant Commissioner (Revenue), said the “Thali Bhagya” scheme is offered only to male candidates and has been in vogue for a couple of years now.
Mr. Ajay said he knew of a candidate, who opted for the scheme last year, and was happily married now.