The first chairman of the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC), Ghanta Chakrapani completes his term on Thursday, leaving the organisation reformed and transparent with processes digitised and allegation-free recruitments in the past six years.
He speaks to The Hindu on his journey and accomplishments. Excerpts:
What is your biggest achievement?
Filling up 35,724 posts from the 108 notifications, meeting the aspirations of Telangana youth and most importantly, creating trust and confidence among the youth on fair recruitment practices with not a single allegation against the Commission. Even among the recruited candidates, we could instill a strong sense of belonging to Telangana and the desire to serve the new State through fair practices.
The recruited candidates themselves agreed that they had never imagined the whole process of recruitment would be money-free.
What were the challenges and were you able to meet the aspirations of people?
The biggest challenge was creating the organisation itself in the new State and we built robust mechanisms. Entire process was online, including submission of application forms and payment of fee. We received 48.90 lakh applications for 365 examinations conducted till December this year and the entire data is digitised and cannot be compromised now. Abolishing the interview part of the recruitment was a historic reform to instill confidence among the candidates that went on smoothly and the Central government has also followed the same path now.
We fulfilled the aspirations of the youngsters by notifying 36,758 vacancies in 108 notifications and completing the process for 35,724.
It is perceived that PSCs are under political influence during recruitments. How were you able to tackle that?
Freedom was the biggest strength during our term and there was no political interference at any time, making our job much easier.
We wanted to showcase TSPSC as a role model for the country and we are happy that several PSCs in the country adopted our model. Even a team of Mauritian government officials visited us to study the processes.
I was chosen as the chairman of the Standing Committee of the national conference of the State PSCs for two terms and that itself is a honour for the TSPSC. That was possible with the help of all members who were qualified and committed.
