Amaravati, Aug 19 (IANS) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday alleged that unprecedented irregularities took place in the APPSC Group-1 examinations conducted during the previous government’s tenure.

Speaking in the State Legislative Assembly, he said there were violations of procedures in the recruitment of Group-1 officers.

He claimed that answer scripts were evaluated by plumbers, electricians and security guards.

The Chief Minister slammed the previous government for undermining the credibility of Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC), which is a key institution responsible for selecting senior officials for the State.

The Chief Minister said the irregularities in the Group-1 examinations would be comprehensively analysed and further action would be taken.

He announced that APPSC would be completely overhauled to ensure that such incidents do not recur, with transparent evaluation procedures and stronger security standards put in place.

Naidu said reforms would be undertaken after obtaining suggestions from the public and intellectuals. The system needs to be thoroughly reformed to ensure that such irregularities never recur, he said.

He alleged that the person who violated rules while occupying the Chief Minister’s chair during the previous government was absent from the Assembly instead of answering the people on the issue.

The Chief Minister said 1.14 lakh candidates had applied for the Group-1 notification issued in 2018, of whom 325 were shortlisted. He said the rules were completely disregarded in conducting an examination for which candidates worked extremely hard to secure government jobs.

Naidu said that although the High Court had directed that manual evaluation be undertaken instead of digital evaluation, affidavits were filed in a manner that allegedly misled the court.

The CM claimed that interviews were conducted and appointments were made even while the court’s orders were in force. The High Court subsequently examined the matter and constituted a three-member committee headed by a retired judge to inquire into the issue.

He said the evaluation that should have been carried out by university professors and Heads of Departments was instead entrusted to teachers, lecturers and other allegedly ineligible persons, amounting to a serious violation of procedure.

According to the Chief Minister, a panel of 158 persons was selected, of whom 72 were assigned evaluation duties, while 25 had allegedly been appointed unofficially. He further alleged that another 66 evaluators unofficially evaluated examination papers.

–IANS

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