Hyderabad: The Centre’s Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) is flooded with queries from Civil Services aspirants and coaching centres, who are taking the RTI route to find out the contents of the Centre’s Baswan Committee report regarding reforms to the civil services exam.
DoPT has been receiving many RTI applications on the issue since August, when the Committee submitted its report. With speculations of the Baswan Committee recommending reduction in the upper age limit from the existing 32 years to 28 from 2017, civil services aspirants and coaching centres are anxious to know about the eligibility norms.
In the absence of clarity, students aged above 28 are confused about their preparations, while coaching centres are clueless about the coaching module with reports of the Committee recommending radical changes in the scheme of exam, number of papers etc.
The DoPT has not disclosed the contents on grounds that they were only suggestions made by the Committee and the Centre is yet to take a final call on its implementation.
Mr K. Rajesh, who did his M.Tech and is aspiring for civil services, said, “I filed an RTI in this regard. The DoPT replied that no further information on the Civils exam on the eligibility norms, scheme of exam etc. could be shared at this stage.” Hundreds of Civils aspirants taking coaching in various institutes have also filed similar RTI queries and received the same answer.
“Many speculations are doing the rounds over the Centre changing the Civils exam pattern from next year based on the Baswan Committee recommendations. If it doesn’t want to disclose the details, the Centre should at least come forward to give clarity whether the existing pattern will continue next year. We could not concentrate on our preparation due to contradictory reports,” said Ms B. Malathi, a Civils aspirant.
TPSC files caveats to curb pleas
To ensure smooth conduct of recruitment tests without any legal hassles, TSPSC is filing Caveat petitions before each exam for the last few months. Agriculture Officers’ (AO, 120 posts) and Agriculture Extension Officers’ (AEO, 1,311 posts) recruitment has been delayed for over a year due to a pending court case. The TSPSC had conducted exams for nearly 1,500 posts in the Agriculture department, but some candidates took the legal route citing new rules. This led to the court issuing a stay order for the recruitment.
In view of this experience, the Public Service Commission has been filing Caveats before each of the last five to six recruitment tests it has conducted. Recently, it filed a Caveat for the Group-2 exam (slated for November 11 and 13) to ensure that 8 lakh applicants are not affected due to such issues. In the AO and AEO recruitment case, the court has directed the TSPSC not to release the merit list although the written exams were completed almost one year ago.
