TNPSC follows ‘highly inefficient model’, says Palanivel Thiaga Rajan
The Hindu
Minister for Finance and Human Resource Management Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Monday described as “a highly inefficient model” the examinations conducted by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC).
Minister for Finance and Human Resource Management Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Monday described as “a highly inefficient model” the examinations conducted by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC).
Recalling the measures initiated to reform the TNPSC, he referred to a particular incident of conducting an examination for 24 lakh candidates to select 7,000 among them for government jobs, which required an additional ₹45 crore.
“There was a need to print 100 crore papers to conduct tests in 2,400 centres with the help of over 7,000 examiners and invigilators. It is unjustifiable. It is a highly inefficient model. Conducting tests for 24 lakh persons per year to select 7,000 candidates is not suitable for the age of technology. That is why we have taken steps on the advice of the Chief Minister to improve the system,” he said.
Mr. Rajan was responding to the allegation that 700 candidates who wrote examinations in a particular centre were selected for the post of land surveyors, which echoed in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.
He said there was no connection between what was shared on social media and what he had obtained from the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC).
He would share whatever details he had in hand and promised to give a detailed reply another day. “When it was brought to my attention, I directed the Secretary of the Human Resource Management to collect details from the TNPSC,” he said responding to a calling attention motion moved by former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, Tamilaga Vaazhurimai Katchi (TVK) founder Panruti Velmurugan and CPI(M) member Nagai Mali.
Mr. Rajan said the TNPSC was an autonomous organisation and was supposed to act without allowing the direct intervention of the government. The AIADMK members raised objection when Mr. Velumurugan said irregularities crept in after the AIADMK government allowed candidates from other States and even from some countries to participate in the examination conducted by the TNPSC.
In 2021, five women from Mayithara, four of them MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) workers, found a common ground in their desire to create a sustainable livelihood by growing vegetables. Rajamma M., Mary Varkey, Valsala L., Elisho S., and Praseeda Sumesh, aged between 70 and 39, pooled their savings, rented a piece of land and began their collective vegetable farming journey under the Deepam Krishi group.