Bengaluru: As many as 28 Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) officers who spent the best years of their lives in the state bureaucracy are set to lose their jobs following a decision of the high court which altered the selection list for the KPSC gazetted probationers’ examination.
Their places will be taken by those who failed to get shortlisted earlier and missed coveted posts. The exam had come under the lens following corruption charges.
But most of those who stand to gain aren’t overjoyed. “I appeared for the exam when I was 34. Now I am 50 and don’t know what I can achieve by joining government service,” an aspirant said.
After 16 years of a long legal battle, justice is finally in sight for the hundreds of candidates who had done exceptionally well in the KPSC gazetted probationers’ examination 1998, but failed to get shortlisted or missed coveted posts in important departments of the state government.
This exam was conducted for the appointment of 383 gazetted A and B grade officers in various departments
The background
According to KPSC officials, three gazetted probationers’ examinations conducted by KPSC in the years 1998, 1999 and 2004 were under the lens on corruption-related charges from day one of the notification.
A major allegation against the then-KPSC chairman and members was that they selected certain candidates by showing favoritism in the personality test and interview.
There were also charges that there had been tampering with their documents in the reservation category to ensure that they got top posts.
The same allegation was made by candidates who appeared for the 1999 examination. Interestingly, both the examinations were conducted under the supervision of the same KPSC chairman and members.
Most of those who stand to gain aren’t exactly overjoyed. The candidates who expected to join state service with the announcement of a fresh selection list by the KPSC, say they have already crossed their prime and have less than 10 years of service left. Speaking to this newspaper, a candidate whose name had appeared on the ‘revised’ selection list, sounded clueless about his future.
“I appeared for the examination when I was 34 years old. Now I am 50 and working for a private firm, with just 10 years of service remaining.
I lost my best years in the legal battle. Now I have to start a new career and compete with my juniors. My parents wanted to see me as a KAS officer.
But now they are no more. I don’t know what I can achieve at this point by joining the government service,” he said.
He went on, “Tens of my friends who had appeared for the 1999 and 2004 examinations are also fighting for justice. Many from both the batches are now close to retirement age.
Corrupt government and KPSC officials played with our lives,” he ended on a bitter note.
On the flipside, more than 20 of those whose names were deleted from the new lists, are on the verge of joblessness. “We planned our lives expecting there would be a full career ahead of us.
But now our careers are expected to be terminated soon. Those from KPSC who were allegedly involved in this scam should be punished, not the officials,” said an officer whose name has been deleted from the new list published by the KPSC.
However, Chief Secretary, Kaushik Mukherjee refuted the issue saying, “I am not aware of any developments related to KPSC gazetted probationer’s examination, 1998.”
