When strength is needed, RPSC is at its lowest!

Jaipur: The appointment of new members in Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) has become a necessity now as the work of the Commission is being conducted with only half of its strength. Not only is the work suffering due to this, but the future of lakhs of unemployed youth, that are hoping to get government job, is at stake.

The seriousness of the situation can be gauged from the fact that RPSC Chairman Sanjay Shotriya has written a letter to the state government in this regard and stressed that appointment of members should be done without delay. Instead of the full strength of eight members, at present only four posts are working.

RPSC has posts of one Chairman and seven members and three posts of members are vacant for a long time. On the remaining posts, Dr. Sangeeta Arya, Dr. Jaswant Singh Rathi, Dr. Manju Sharma and Babulal katara were working. Among these, Katara was arrested after the paper leak scam and has been put behind bars, while Rathi is unwell for past some time. In such a situation, only the Chairman and two members are bearing the entire load who have to undertake interviews, DPCs and examination related works.

At present the interviews of 2021 SI examination is going on in the RPSC and due to working at half its strength, the completion of interviews will take months. Add to that the marathon responsibility of interviews of RAS 2021 examination. A total of 2174 candidates have to be interviewed for 988 posts. Although the result was released in August, the interviews have not been started even though nine months have passed.

According to knowledgeable sources, it is for the first time that such a difficult situation has befallen RPSC. It has also happened for the first time that Commission’s member has been lodged in jail for paper leak. Although in the past, then Chairman of the RPSC Habib Khan Gauran had got embroiled in serious allegations, but the situation did not swell to the level that action had to be taken on him. He suomoto offered his resignation on Sept 22, 2014.

In the present times, the case surrounding Babulal Katara has happened for the first time. The constitutional rule allows the Governor to appoint RPSC member on the recommendation of the state government. But if a situation arises to remove any member, then only the President has the power to do so. Sources reveal that Katara’s file has been sent to the President by the state government. And the approval for removal may come when it does, but as of now, there is an emergency in the Commission regarding appointment of new members. Experts believe that doing away with the political, caste based or recommendation based appointments, members that are capable, meritorious and of clean image should be appointed.