[ Bengia Ajum ]
The Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) has once again found itself in deep controversy. The capital police on Monday announced the arrest of five persons who were allegedly involved in the APPSC’s assistant engineer (civil) examination question paper leakage case. This latest incident came to public notice when one of the aspirants, Gyamar Padang, acted as a whistleblower and shared information with police that he suspected that the questions paper for the exam had been leaked.
Padang has shown immense courage by acting as a whistleblower and deserves appreciation for it. Of the five arrested, one of the alleged accused is Deputy Secretary-cum-Deputy Controller of Examination, Taket Jerang. As the investigation is ongoing, the involvement of more people cannot be ruled out at this juncture. This is not the first time that the commission has come under the public lens. Successive examinations have been marred by controversies and allegations. Just when people of Arunachal think the APPSC has changed for good, it is again hit by controversy.
In 2015, the APPSC was hit hard by the paper leak controversy. The General Studies-II paper was leaked at that time. Ujum Perying, an aspiring civil servant, had launched a 72-hour-long hunger strike, demanding reconducting of the examination and removal of the then commission members. She was joined by many prominent people, including academicians. A special investigation team (SIT) of the state police arrested five persons in connection with the APPSCCE-2014 paper leakage issue. The arrested persons include all officials of the APPSC. Till now no one knows what is the outcome of the case? The exam was cancelled and reconducted after a gap of two years.
When the exam was reconducted in 2017, the candidates raised issues over question papers. When the first preliminary exam was held on 26 November, 2017, candidates, particularly for the public administration and sociology papers, created a furore. According to them, the public administration paper had 32 questions from outside the syllabus, along with several errors.
Animal husbandry & veterinary science candidates claimed that over 60 questions were from outside the syllabus and copied from the book ‘Vetscan’, along with over 20 spelling errors – just as they had been printed in the book. There were a total of 23 errors in the sociology paper, with similar issues of copying questions from an online discussion forum, while Indian history also had over 10 questions from outside the syllabus, as well as some errors. The matter went to court and the whole exam process was conducted in an uncertain atmosphere.
Coming back to the present case, the state government needs to take some steps to restore the trust of the people in the commission. First of all, there should be a complete overhaul of the commission. Right from the chairman to members, everyone should be removed and a fresh team constituted. This does not mean all members are guilty but these steps need to be taken as the majority of aspirants have lost trust in the functioning of the present team of the APPSC. Only people with impeccable records should be made members and chairperson in the future.
Further, to stop paper leakage and corruption, the government should pass an order that all LDC/UDC, deputy secretary, etc, posts will be rotated in the commission after every two to three years.
Besides the ongoing police investigation, the state government should constitute a high-level committee to separately study where the lapses took place within the commission and measures that are needed to make the APPSC corruption-free. The report of the committee should be made public.
Further, the state government should conduct consultations with professors of RGU, NIT, and NERIST to seek expert opinions to improve the examination process.
