It’s for the first time that the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) has decided to henceforth conduct a mandatory screening test even for those posts which are being filled on an interview basis in Uttar Pradesh.
UPPSC officials maintain that the step is aimed at ensuring the best available candidate’s bag these jobs on offer.
The decision would however not be applicable for recruitments for specialized posts like principals and professors of state government-run medical colleges, they clarified.
UPPSC Secretary Jagdish confirmed the decision and said that it had been taken at a recent meeting of the commission held at its headquarters and said that the step also means that every applicant would at least get one chance to prove his mettle for a selection process.
Earlier, the commission used to conduct the screening test for 50 or more posts and for which the total number of applicants remained 20 times the number of total vacant posts. For other direct recruitments, a panel of the commission used to finalize a merit list based on the academic performance of the applicants and only those at the top of it were called for an interview. However this screening test would now level the playing field, he explained.
The step would especially help candidates who have completed their academics from government-run institutions and are believed to get lesser marks as compared to the more liberal private institutions.
Earlier, different groups of youngsters appearing in the recruitment exams conducted by the commission have also repeatedly raised this issue before UPPSC officials.
The step has been welcomed by most competitive/recruitment exam candidates who maintain that the move would also further curb corruption in the commission. In the past, many of the direct recruitments being conducted by the commission have drawn allegations of corruption. However, with this step, this is expected to become a thing of the past, concede officials.
The step is being viewed as yet another move of the new chairman of UPPSC Prabhat Kumar to ensure transparent recruitments by the commission for all level of posts and free UPPSC of its past trend of inviting controversies and allegations over its handling of different recruitment processes.
