Editor,
I wish to highlight the growing concern over the conduct of the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) in the ongoing recruitment of assistant engineers.
The commission has already created a serious blunder by failing to publish the roll numbers of all qualified candidates in a time-bound manner, which is a basic requirement for transparency in any competitive examination. This lapse alone raises doubts about fairness in the process.
More troubling, however, is the glaring disparity in preparation time provided to candidates. While the first list of candidates was given nearly a month to prepare for the mains examination, those in the second list have been given barely nine days. This is unacceptable, especially when the examination is highly technical in nature, requiring extensive preparation and revision. By doing so, the APPSC has created unequal footing among candidates, violating the principle of equal opportunity under Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.
Moreover, in recruitment practices across the country, it is a well-established norm to provide at least three months’ gap between the preliminary and the mains examinations, so that candidates have adequate time to prepare. Shockingly, the APPSC not only shortened this gap drastically but also introduced new syllabus components at the last moment, allowing hardly one month for candidates to adjust and prepare. Nowhere else in the country is such an injustice practiced in recruitment.
The cumulative effect of these actions is not merely procedural error; it amounts to denial of natural justice. Aspirants who have worked hard for years are being unfairly disadvantaged due to administrative lapses that could have been easily avoided with proper planning.
In the larger interest of fairness, I strongly urge the APPSC to:
- Provide equal and reasonable preparation time for all qualified candidates before the mains examination,
- Ensure that in future, there is a maximum three-month gap between prelims and mains, in line with established recruitment standards across India, and
- Avoid introducing last-minute syllabus changes that place candidates under undue stress.
The APPSC is a constitutional body, and with that comes the responsibility of maintaining the highest standards of credibility, transparency, and fairness. Unless urgent corrective measures are taken, the trust of candidates and the wider public in this institution will be gravely undermined.
AE aspirant