SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, Feb 22: The Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) in crisis is a perennial story as the commission, which often hogged the limelight due to wrong reasons, keeps inviting and creating troubles.
The JPSC is already in the dock and its credibility is at its lowest ebb after the back-to-back controversies, particularly after the revision of PT results of the civil services twice, first after the Governor’s intervention and second after orders from the Jharkhand High Court. A checkered past regarding result disputes in previous exams pass serious remarks over its conduct.
With another matter waiting to be filed in the court by the disqualified 409 SC, ST and EWS students, the JPSC aspirants are in a state of utter confusion and find it difficult to focus on studies.
JPSC aspirant Sanjeev Singh said, “A JPSC exam and its results usually stretch over for years, whereas an aspirant prepares for at least 5-10 years before attempting the exam. With such controversies surrounding the results of a commission that has the lives of several thousand students at stake, it should be careful before declaring results and maintaining its standing. We as students are scared as to what will happen if we have to face such scenarios ourselves. There should be some checks and action should be taken to rectify the situation without any injustice with the students.”
Another aspirant Rajesh Kumar said, “the JPSC has lost all of its reliability and it is not just the fault of officials at the JPSC but also the government. The vacancy for the seventh JPSC exam had been initially released in the year 2020, but later had been rescinded over making a new manual by the government. As a result, after this, an uncountable number of controversies have been uncovered in the course of the seventh to 10th JPSC exams.”
“Reports have also claimed that exam questions were leaked and that examinees that had left empty OMR sheets have been passed, along with several others. All of this has happened after actions based on the new manual for JPSC. Thus, I believe that the accountability lies with both JPSC and the state government and both bodies should answer,” he said.
Sujeet Acharya, Acharya Academy owner and a professor questioning the credibility of JPSC on Tuesday said, “JPSC is a chaotic constitutional body where the functioning of JPSC and the interests of the candidates do not match. This institution is yet to establish its integrity and ethical responsibility. Rather, not only has the history of the Commission been dark, but even at present, its working system is full of suspicious behavior. This commission must justify its existence by its ethical conduct.”
A government employee who cleared JPSC fifth civil services exam, requesting anonymity said, “I have lost all hope in the JPSC. I cleared my exam under another chairman, who was considerate as per my experience. But with new controversies about results every other week, JPSC’s reliability is at stake. I was thinking of preparing for JPSC for a better post, but now, I feel I cannot trust the JPSC.”
Notably, the seventh to 10th JPSC civil services examination prelims result had been under scrutiny since the very beginning. Students had earlier cited various anomalies and discrepancies in the result of the prelims exam which was held on September 19 last year. Questions were raised after a few selected candidates, who took the examination in the same room at several centres, were found to have cleared the examination. Students alleged that there are 242 such students who have their roll number in a serial. This anomaly was reported from some of the examination centers in Lohardaga, Sahebganj, Latehar and Gumla. Students alleged corruption and challenged the result in the Jharkhand High Court.
Soon another issue was raised by students about unpublished and then declared missing OMR sheets. Governor Ramesh Bais had then demanded answers from JPSC chairman Amitabh Choudhary over the matter. The commission in its explanation had admitted that around 57 candidates were declared provisionally qualified, even when their OMR sheets were not available with the commission. However, later the JPSC published another explanation stating that out of 57 candidates, eight were disqualified earlier for different valid reasons and the remaining 49 were found to have not secured qualifying marks, hence they were also disqualified.
