GPSC puts civil services candidates in a spot

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">AHMEDABAD: The use of the ‘scaling technique’ by the Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC) in shortlisting candidates for interviews of the state civil services has come in for severe criticism by hundreds of aspirants. Alleging malafide intention, they claim it has helped the commission to tamper with the merit list.<br />Those who appeared in the Gujarat civil services examinations for 243 class-I and class-II posts in June last year say that the GPSC should have announced the use of the technique much earlier.What compelled the commission to use it suddenly, asks 26-year-old Anand Vania, who was sure about getting through.<br />As candidates don’t get marksheets, they are in a fix. Had the commission published a list showing marks in order of merit, there would not have been any iota of doubt, says 26-year-old Jitendra Chauhan of Rajkot. He is worried about his career.<br />“The GPSC conducted this examination after eight years. Nobody knows when the next examination would be held. Perhaps, I may not get a chance to appear again,� he says ruefully.<br />“Why did not the commission inform us in advance? We chose marks-scoring subjects like history and geography going by the past results. Or else, we could have opted for other subjects,� says Bhavin Raval.<br />Even legal experts are baffled. “These examinations are governed by statutory provisions. Nothing can be added from outside, including the ‘scaling technique’, as this would amount to manipulation,� says a lawyer.<br />GPSC chairman PM Raval has refused to comment on the issue. <br />However, by way of explanation, he says, “The scaling technique is used by the UPSC besides the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh public service commissions. It’s a scientific method to avoid injustice to anybody.�<br />Countering him, candidates refer to a recent ruling of the Allahabad High Court which set aside results based on the ‘scaling technique.’ They claim the technique is not used for civil services examinations conducted by the UPSC.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">How merit gets scaled </span><br />How the ‘scaling technique’ works is interesting to see. If there are 200 posts, one lakh candidates and only 3,000 have to be short-listed, then results based on the technique will not show the top 3,000 candidates in order of merit. It will consider a proportionate representation of candidates choosing different subjects. If 30,000 opt for history, 50,000 geography, 10,000 political science and 10,000 zoology, the scaling list would comprise 900 who opt for history, 1,500 for geography and 300 for other subjects. This would mean a candidate getting the 301st rank in political science by scoring 310 marks out of 350 would not succeed, but a candidate opting for geography having scored only 240 marks could be declared successful.</div> </div>