M A I N   N E W S

Merit no criterion for docs’ selection
Out of 312 candidates, 125 were selected by the PPSC despite poor academic record
Chitleen K Sethi
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 26
In his report on the alleged irregularities in selection of doctors by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC), Punjab Chief Secretary SC Aggarwal has held that many selected candidates were found to have a poor academic record but were given very high marks in the interview that led to their selection.

A list of at least 125 such candidates (out of 312) has been attached with the report. The report further lists over 35 candidates who had scored very high in MBBS but were not selected by the PPSC.

Talking to The Tribune, Aggarwal said the report was submitted to the Chief Minister today with the recommendation that a Vigilance Bureau team be constituted to look at these “particular” cases of candidates, who despite a low academic record, made it to the merit list.

Aggarwal further said he had gone through the academic records of all the candidates and the marks given by the PPSC to them. “From perusal of these records no consistent pattern has emerged that points towards the PPSC having taken in only non-meritorious candidates. One cannot say that all the selections were wrong,” he added.

“However, there are several cases, wherein despite a poor record the candidate was given such good marks in the interview that he got through,” said Aggarwal.

“In the first list of 100 selected candidates, if you take 40 out of 50 as high marks for an interview, seven did not deserve to be in the list as their academic performance is poor. However, if we take the cut-off marks as 35, about 28 did not deserve to be on the list,” he added.

“In the second list of 212 candidates, if 40 is the cut-off for an interview, nearly 55 did not deserve to be on the list and if we take the cut off as 35, almost 95 would not have made it to the final list,” Aggarwal said.

Among those who applied for the job in the first lot of selections of 100 posts, Aggarwal has listed 16 candidates who were academically strong but were not selected as they got very few marks in the interview. In the second lot of those who applied for 212 posts, Aggarwal found over 20 such candidates.

Aggarwal said for his inquiry, he divided the entire set of candidates into four groups based on the marks they got in MBBS and the groups were then compared with the marks given to them in the interview.

“When we compared the two, we could not find one single pattern that may lead us to believe that everyone who was taken in by the PPSC was undeserving,” said Aggarwal.

He added that the decision to set apart five marks for social work was not right. “There is no way anyone can check the authenticity of the certificates that the candidates might have submitted as proof. And if these marks are removed from the final count, it makes a substantial change in the final merit list,” he said.