The lack of a clear advance examinations schedule for candidates, who appear in competitive examinations conducted by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC), has led to long delay in the recruitment of government employees, with some of the recruitment processes taking more than two years to complete.
Adding to the delay is the vacancies in the TNPSC, which continues to function with less than half the sanctioned members. The number of members is directly proportional to the number of interview boards that the Commission can have. It matters a lot in cases of Group II exams which usually has several vacancies. Against its sanctioned strength of 14 members and a chairman as per the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission Regulations, 1954, the Commission at present has only the chairman and five members.
No clarity on dates
Though the Commission usually releases the recruitment calendar and the name of posts in various departments, candidates are not informed the exact date of preliminary examination, main examinations and the interview dates and hence are made to wait for more than two years in case of Group I and II examinations.
“The last Group II notification was issued on April 30, 2015 and the preliminary exam was held on July 26 that year. A year later, the mains was held in August 2016, and another year later, the results were published in September this year. Interviews are yet to be held,” pointed out a candidate.
As for the Group I recruitment, the notification was issued in July 2015, the preliminary exams held in August that year, the mains a year later in July 2016. The interviews for the posts were held in August this year and finals results were published last month, he said, adding that aspirants were affected as they had to wait for two years for one exam cycle to get over.
When asked, a senior TNPSC official said, “Our target is to complete the exam process within a year. But, due to some factors we are not able to complete within a year in some cases. There are instances when candidates move the court and disturb our process.”
“Sometimes, we had to run the same recruitment procedure across the State even to fill just two or low level three technical posts in one department,” the official added.
As for the vacancies in the member posts of the Commission, the official said, “The Commission can continue even with a chairman and two members. But, it would really help if there are more members. For instance, for Group II interviews, more members mean more boards and the process can be completed soon. Only the government has to decide.”
