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Who is to clean the Augean’s Stable called KPSC ?
by M K Vidyaranya
As a Senior Journalist who has been keenly watching the activities of the Karnataka Public Service Commission ( KPSC), I find that it has become a ‘Fountain Head of Corruption’ and breeding corrupt officials,
Even brilliant people who have passed the written examination will not be able to get selected to the Class 1 posts unless they shell out a bribe ranging between Rs 40 to 45 lakhs, and for Class I posts and between Rs 30 to 35 lakhs for the Class II posts.
These Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) posts include Tahsildars, Deputy Superintendents of Police, Sub-Registrars, Assistant Commissioners etc.,
The hitch lies in allowing the KPSC members to allot marks in Viva-voce examination. According to the present rules, members have been given powers to allocate up to 200 marks. the candidate who has scored 80% in written examination wants to get selected to the KAS class one post , he has to shell out the above amount of bribe, whether he begs, borrows or steals. If he fails to give it, he would get only minimum of 50 marks , in the viva voce, while a candidate who had scored less marks gets class one post if he shells out huge sums of money.
While demanding the bribe, the KPSC members give examples of the raids conducted by the Lokayukta where crores of rupees have been seized from ordinary officials and tell them , being the Class I officers you can make five times more money within a short time. Paying Rs 40 lakhs to us is nothing,
Naturally the person who had bribed so much to get the post would start collecting money forcibly right from the day one from the public who go to him to get their works done.
A time has come to reduce the allocation of viva-voce marks to KPSC members from the present 200 to 50 so that they cannot play with the future of brilliant students who had burned the midnight oil to score more marks in the written examination.
It is time see that the UPSC pattern is adopted in allocation of viva-voce marks in KPSC also.
It is gathered that all the 10 members of the KPSC have been told by the higher authorities to give Rs 3 crore each to the powers that be that are controlling them. Now that the written examinations are over, the brokers and middlemen are striking deals with the candidates.
A top level meeting of the KPSC members chaired by the close aides of a top politician held during the last Chief Minister’s regime was told that the KPSC members should leave 40 to 45 class one posts for them to select and they can anything thing they want with the remaining.
The authoriies concerned should get the documents which shows that those who had scored high marks in the main written examination have scored less marks in viva-voce, while those who have scored less in written examination and have paid huge bribe have got more marks and got selected.
Presently there are no askers and no tellers for the KPSC members who are out of the ambit of Lokayukta act. Steps should be taken to bring them under the Karnataka Lok Ayukta Act so that the corruption can be nipped in the bud to some extent.
Steps to nip the plant of corruption in the bud itself before it becomes a huge tree giving shelter to corrupt officials and politicians who are squeezing the poor. If it is done, the people of Karnataka, particularly those who are aspiring for the government job would be indebted to those who do it.
Karnataka Governor Mr Hansaraj Bharadwaj and the Lokayukta have been infomed of the rampant corruption in the KPSC and have been urged to initiate proper action to bring the corrupt officials to book.
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