Ranjit Barthakur appointed acting APSC chairman

Recommendations of MP Bezbaruah committee & TL Baruah committee to reform APSC still in files gathering dust

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Nov 30: The State government on Wednesday appointed Brigadier (retd.) Ranjit Barthakur the acting chairman of the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC). He is already serving as APSC member. After the arrest of APSC chairman Rakesh Kumar Paul for his suspected involvement in the cash-for-jobs scam in the Commission, the post of chairman was lying vacant, creating a constitutiol crisis in the State.

The Commission is also short of the required number members after the arrest of two of its members Basanta Doley and Samedur Rahman by police on charges of their involvement in the cash-for-jobs scam.

Sources said three ACS and one APS officers are currently being interrogated by police on the suspicion that selection of these top officials could have been marred by malpractices.

The previous Congress government in the State had constituted a committee headed by MP Bezbaruah to reform APSC. The committee submitted its report a year ago, containing several important suggestions to reform the Commission, but till date these suggestions have not been sent to the State cabinet for approval.

A few years earlier, the Tapan Lal Baruah-led committee on APSC reform was constituted by the State government in the aftermath of Income Tax officials raiding the residence of the then APSC chairman Tarapada Das and seizing a large haul of uccounted cash. The recommendations by the committee were never implemented by the government for reasons best known to it.

The selection of APSC members is presently done at the wish of the Chief Minister. Instead, the government should constitute a committee so that it can suggest the mes for APSC members to the CM after proper scrutiny. This system of selecting members through a committee will bring much-needed transparency into the system.

Some of the suggestions of the MP Bezbaruah committee are as follows:

1.The APSC should prepare a complete time-table for holding the Combined Competitive Examition (CCE) every year without fail and should also include the date of declaration of results.

2.The committee observed with great concern that no neutral observers are engaged during opening and closing of examition and packing of OMR sheets. It strongly recommended that independent observers be engaged in each centre at least while making packets of answer scripts.

3.The manual coding system should be replaced with computer generated BAR coding system. This will reduce time, toil and ensure error-free exercise.

4.There should be three interview boards. The government should ensure that the vacancies of members are filled up.

5.Half an hour before the time of interview, the boards should be constituted by lottery.

6.Objective questions or OMR system of examition can't rule out the elements of chance. The capability to think and express is an essential attribute of a civil servant. An OMR system of examition doesn't adequately bring out these attributes. In fact, it is widely recognized that in the objective papers of the prelimiry examitions, chance plays a major role. Many State PSCs and the UPSC provide for negative marking in objective questions. The Bezbaruah committee recommended that 50 per cent negative marking be introduced in the objective question papers.