IRS officer had fudged age, got new identity to appear for UPSC’s IAS exam: CBI

Source: hindustantimes.com

The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against an Indian Revenue Service Officer who cleared the Union Public Service Commission more than a decade ago. The CBI says the Bihar man, was overage to apply for the UPSC’s 2007 civil services examination, commonly known as IAS exam, and got himself a new identity to beat the system.

He seemed to have succeeded for little over a decade. He cleared the exam, was allocated the Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) and was at last count, posted at the GST office in Kolkata. Then, someone complained.

In a First Information Report registered by the CBI this week, the agency said the IRS officer was known by a different name for a larger part of his childhood and youth in Bihar’s West Champaran district.

But when he changed his name, the Bihar man did not bother to change his father’s name or his address. The CBI says that it had come across documents which indicate that he had done his schooling from the Jawahar Navodya Vidyalaya at Bettiah.

The FIR has also alleged manipulation of documents, pointing that the officer got into the civil services in response to a public notice for examination in 2006. But the graduation degree that he was in his personal file indicates he got his BA (Hons) degree two years later.

“It is clear from the above that he had done some manipulation to appear at the exam,” the CBI FIR said.

Indicating that he had help from someone within the examination system, the FIR said it also transpired that the IRS officer hadn’t submitted any date of birth certificate or the certificate of clearing the class 12 exam in 2003.

The CBI also underscored that the Bihar School Education Committee hadn’t cooperated in providing his details.

Public Service Commission member booked on graft charge

Source: freepressjournal.in

Patna: A fresh recruitment scam involving deputy-collectors and deputy-SPs has surfaced with the state Vigilance Bureau registering an FIR against Ram Kishore Singh, a senior member of Bihar Public Service Commission, and his associate Parmeshwar Rai on Monday. Singh immediately resigned from the Commission citing “personal reasons”.

The FIR was registered following a complaint by one of the unsuccessful candidates who had appeared for an interview after qualifying in the 56-59 batches of competitive examinations conducted for recruitment of  deputy-collectors and deputy-SPs.

The Vigilance Bureau had put the telephones of both Rai and Singh on surveillance and collected the call detail records. The records with voice samples of the BPSC member were sent to Central Forensic Science Laboratory at Chandigarh.

The voice of Singh matched with the CDRs. After getting a positive report from the FSL, the FIR was registered. Singh was a member of the Bihar Vidhan Parishad on BJP ticket for six years before being appointed as a member of the Commission in 2014.

BPSC 65th Combined Prelims 2019 Application Form Date Extended; Apply Till August 11

Source: news.careers360.com

NEW DELHI, JULY 25: Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) has extended the last date to fill the BPSC 65th Combined Prelims exam 2019 application form. Candidates can now fill the application form of BPSC till August 11, 2019. Earlier, the last date to fill the form was August 6. All those candidates who could not register for the application form filling by the prior last date of registration can now register till July 29. Candidates could earlier register till July 24 only. Along with the date of application and registration, the authority has also extended the last date to pay the application fee. Now, candidates can pay the application fee till August 5, 2019 which could be earlier paid till July 30.

To fill the application form of BPSC, candidates must visit the official website of the examination authority – bpsc.bih.nic.in and click on the application form link. Candidate must fill all the details in the application form correctly. Along with filling the application form, candidates must also pay the requisite application fee as per their category. Candidates belonging to General, OBC categories and other state candidates must pay Rs. 600 as the application fee, while SC/ST candidates and females (of all categories) need to pay Rs. 150 in online mode.

Before filling the application form of BPSC 2019 exam, candidates must keep certain particulars – scanned photograph , signature, mobile number, valid email ID, any one photo – identity proof issued by State or Central Government like PAN card/Aadhaar card/Voter Id card/Passport/ Driving License and details of Visa/Debit/Credit card and Net Banking to pay the application fee ready with them.

BPSC conducts BPSC Civil Services Exam for the recruitment of candidates to various posts like Revenue Officer, Block Panchayat Officer, Assistant Registrars in Cooperative Societies, Bihar Police Service etc.

IAS Officer Ajay Kumar Bhalla Appointed Next Union Home Secretary

Source: news18.com

New Delhi: Power Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla on Wednesday was appointed Officer on Special Duty in the Home Ministry and he will take over as the new Union Home Secretary succeeding Rajiv Gauba when he retires on August 31.

According to an official order, Bhalla, a 1984 batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, will join the MHA with immediate effect and continue to function as OSD till Gauba retires for smooth transition of the charges.

Bhalla will have a fixed two-year tenure as union home secretary till August 2021.

The government also appointed Atanu Chakraborty, a 1985 batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer, as the new Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs succeeding S C Garg, who will be the new Power Secretary.

Anil Kumar Khachi, a 1986-batch IAS from Himachal Pradesh cadre will be the new Secretary, Disinvestment succeeding Chakraborty, a government order said.

Anshu Prakash, 1986-batch UT cadre IAS officer, was appointed Secretary in the Department of Telecommunication while his batch-mate from West Bengal cadre RS Shukla will join as Secretary, Parliamentary Affairs, it said.

Ravi Capoor, a 1986-batch Assam Meghalaya cadre, was appointed Secretary, Textiles while his batch-mate Atul Chaturvedi was sent to Animal Husbandry and Dairying department in same capacity.

Another Gujarat cadre officer P D Vaghela, 1986-batch, will be the new Secretary in Department of Pharmaceuticals, the order said.

GV Venugopala Sarma, IAS from Odisha cadre, was appointed Member Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority in the rank and pay of Secretary by temporarily upgrading the post.

His batch mate from Gujarat, Guruprasad Mohapatra was appointed Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. Mohapatra is the Chairman, Airports Authority of India in the Civil Aviation Ministry.

The ACC also cleared in-situ upgrade of 12 IAS officers of 1986 batch to the level of Special Secretary in the rank and pay of Secretary, as a measure personal to them, by temporarily upgrading the post held by them, the order said.

Those 1986-batch IAS promoted as special secretaries include Anil Kumar Jain in the Environment Ministry, Subash Chandra in the Department of Defence, Sanjeev Nandan Sahai in the Power Ministry, Shambhu Singh in the Roads and Transport Ministry, Ravi Mittal in the Department of Financial Services, Pramod Kumar Das in the Department of Expenditure and Sanjeeva Kumar in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, it said.

IAS from MP cadre S P Singh Parihar, Chairman, Central Pollution Control Board was given the rank and pay of Secretary, it said. Rakesh Kumar Gupta, Jammu Kashmir cadre IAS officer, was appointed Secretary, Union Public Service Commission, it said.

Alok Vardhan Chaturvedi from Bihar cadre will be new Director General in the Directorate General of Foreign Trade in the rank and pay of Secretary. Satbir Bedi, IAS from UT cadre serving as Chairperson, National Council for Teacher Education was given the rank and pay of Secretary.

Umesh Sinha, UP cadre IAS, currently serving as Deputy Election Commissioner has been given the rank and pay of Secretary, it said.

Governors–sage or saboteur?: Question asked in Bihar echoes in Karnataka

Source: nationalheraldindia.com

Critically examine the role of Governor in the state politics of India, especially in the context of Bihar. Is he just a puppet?

This was the question––considered objectionable by some––asked in the General Studies-II exam of the Bihar Public Service Commission, which concluded on July 16. The GS-II exam was held on July 14.

The question sparked off controversy forcing the BPSC to issue a clarification and announcing that was blacklisting the question-setter. If the sources are to be believed the expert who had set the paper is a retired bureaucrat residing outside Bihar.

It all started after a Hindi daily Dainik Jagaran carried a report on July 15. The daily was more particular over the translation of the word puppet. As most of the examinees write their answers in Hindi the puppet was translated as ‘kathputli’. As the question was asked in the context of Bihar, according to sources, the Raj Bhavan at Patna too was upset over it. There was even demand for filing a case against the expert.

Soon other newspapers, including English, followed and it was alleged that the word ‘Kathputli’ was offensive. The Chairman of the BPSC, Shishir Sinha, himself a retired IAS officer, called on the Bihar Governor, Lalji Tandon, to explain the position of the Commission. However, sources in the BPSC said that he was actually summoned by the Governor.

Some sections saw in the question a political conspiracy. They held that since chief minister Nitish Kumar is unhappy after his party Janata Dal United failed to get due representation in the Narendra Modi cabinet, somebody in the Commission used this ploy against the Governor––actually an appointee of Centre.

So far as the question is concerned, most people felt there was nothing wrong in it. “Questions over the role of the Governor are asked in various Commission exams, including the UPSC,” one of the examinees told this correspondent.

Another candidate recalled that an invigilator in his room was very appreciative of the question as Governors are in the news for all the wrong reasons in the recent years, be it in Bihar, Goa or Karnataka.

Mediapersons are themselves divided over the whole story carried by Jagaran and are of the view that a section of the Press had unnecessarily made a mountain out of molehill.

“This is a total non-issue and unnecessarily played up by the media. Such questions are often asked,” commented a political observer. However, Dainik Jagaran stoutly defended itself and strongly held that words like ‘Kathputli’ cannot be used for constitutional functionaries like the Governor.

When reminded by this correspondent that noted legal luminary, Soli Sorabjee wrote a book “The Governor: Sage or Saboteur”, he replied that anyone could write anything in a book but a derogatory term should not have been used in a Public Service Commission examination.

BPSC too in a notification clarified that apparently there was nothing wrong in the question. Only the word ‘Kathputli’ was misplaced. As the question was asked in the context of Bihar there was some misunderstanding on this issue and that everything had been sorted out.

If reports are to be believed, the Commission is likely to set up a committee to decide how to deal with the question as a large number of candidates chose to answer this particular question though they had other options.

BPSC apologises for controversial question, state promises probe

Source: newkerala.com

Patna, July 16 : The Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) on Tuesday apologised for a controversial question in a paper of its ongoing main examination that sought to know from civil service aspirants if the state Governor was “merely a puppet”. 
The second question in the first part of the General Studies Paper II, held on Sunday, asked aspirants to “critically examine the role of the Governor in state politics, particularly in the context of Bihar. Is he merely a puppet?”

In a press note issued on Tuesday, the BPSC said it had blacklisted the person who set a erroneous question about a constitutional position in the first part of the General Studies Paper II. The BPSC said it apologised for its mistake. 

State Education Minister Krishnanandan Prasad Verma even promised an inquiry into the error and said appropriate action will be taken against those who are found responsible for it. 

According to aspirants, the paper had many such questions, based on their opinions and perceptions.

As the question created controversy, the BPSC’s Examination Controller Amarendra Kumar contended that such questions had been asked earlier too. 

The BPSC’s 64th Main Examination began on July 12 and will end on July 16. Three papers have been held so far and on July 16, the examination in the optional subject will be held.

Bihar Public Service Commission blacklists teacher for question on the role of governor

Source: scroll.in

The Bihar Public Service Commission on Monday said it has blacklisted a person who set a question for the mains exam asking if the governor was merely a puppet. The bilingual paper used the Hindi word ‘kathputili’, which means puppet, PTI reported.

“The person who put the question on a Constitutional post in BPSC Mains Exam, has been asked for an explanation, and has been barred from setting a question paper in future, thereby, putting him in a blacklist,” the commission said, according to ANI. “Express regret over it.”

NDTV reported that the question in Sunday’s paper on General Knowledge was, “Critically examine the role of the Governor in state politics of India, especially in the context of Bihar. Is he a mere puppet?” Lalji Tandon is the present governor of Bihar.

The commission laid the blame on the teacher who set the paper, The Indian Express reported. “There are several sets of papers prepared, and no members have the right to go through each one of them,” an unidentified official told the daily. “The board is scrutinising the incidents and will take actions against the teachers responsible for drafting that particular papers.”

However, the official added that the question will not be deleted. “The students will get marks as per the merit of their answers,” he said. “There is no provision to give full marks to a subjective question.” The question carried six marks.

Political outcry

The question caused disquiet across party lines, Republic TV reported. Bihar Education Minister KN Prasad Verma said it was unfortunate that such a question had been asked. He said an inquiry will be initiated into the matter.

“BPSC is an autonomous body and has its own procedures,” Bihar Water Resources Minister Sanjay Jha said. “It must take care in the future that such questions are not repeated. The government does not interfere in BPSC’s exam procedures. Autonomous does not mean that you can ask anything. They should have respected the post of the governor and not asked such a question.”

Bhai Virendra, a Rashtriya Janata Dal MLA, also condemned the incident. “It seems some illiterate has prepared the questions,” he said. “This has crossed all limits. The governor has been humiliated. The person who prepared the question should be taken to task.”

No ‘regular’ chemist to check quality of potable water supplied to Bihar homes

Source: hindustantimes.com

The Bihar government does not have any regular chemist to test quality of water being supplied to homes under “har ghar nal ka jal”, one of the seven flagship schemes of the state government.

In 2004, the state government had appointed as many as 29 chemists to test quality of supply water in various districts through the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC). But they still continue to work on temporary basis and thereby being denied suitable pay scales and other benefits.

As per rules, the state should have at least one chemist in each of its 38 districts and 75 sub-divisions.

The matter came to the light when Janata Dal (United) member Sanjeev Shyam Singh raised the matter in the legislative council during the question hour and sought the government’s reply on whether it was considering regularising their services and had any plan to equip the water testing labs across the state with qualified technical persons and infrastructure.

The issue assumes considerable significance as the public health and engineering department (PHED) had set up as many as 93 water testing labs in the districts and sub-divisions to ensure supply of safe water in arsenic and fluoride infested areas. Consumption of arsenic and fluoride laced water causes many diseases, including cancer.

In his reply, PHED minister Binod Narayan Jha said the government was looking to regularise the service of chemists appointed through the BPSC. He said chemists could not be appointed as they were appointed as temporary staff under the planned allocation. Later, their posts were transferred under the non-plan section.

Countering the reply, the JD(U) member said it was ironical that the government was treating technical staff appointed by BPSC as casual and denying them appropriate wages under a design by vested interests in the department.

Singh also alleged that the PHED could not develop any reliable set of manpower to ensure supply of tested water despite the Central government’s protocol, stipulated a few years ago, to raise a separate cadre for water testing staff. “As quality testing staff are on temporary basis, engineers, who are dealing in supply, generally held sway in the decision making,” Singh pointed out, adding that the rules framed for better management of human resources in 2016 also contained many discrepancies.

Intervening in the matter, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi the government would look into the issues and correct it as BPSC was not the body to appoint temporary staff. “There might be some mistakes in the past that led to such discrepancies,” he said.

OPINION | RIP, Indian Civil Service

Source: deccanherald.com

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Iron Man of India — for whom the country recently erected a massive statue — described the Indian civil service as the steel frame of the country. Tragically, as the Iron Man’s statue watches benignly, his steel frame is…

An attack on the civil service has begun. The attack will simultaneously make two of India’s institutions effectively ineffective, not only destroying the civil service but also damaging the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

If there is one examination in the country that has for decades been fool-proof, ensuring that only the meritorious and the most deserving get through, it is the civil services examinations. And the credit for that goes to the UPSC, which conducts th…

If there is one examination in the country that has for decades been fool-proof, ensuring that only the meritorious and the most deserving get through, it is the civil services examinations. And the credit for that goes to the UPSC, which conducts the yearly examination. Nearly a million aspirants apply for the examination every year, of which about 7-8 lakh go on to write it. Of these, finally about 1,200 are selected for the various services, with the top 70 or so selected to the IAS and the next 60 for the IPS and so on.

The UPSC, established in 1926, has been holding these examinations without leaks or other malpractices. Which is why only the most deserving and meritorious get through the exam. Only the best among those writing the exam in any year can get through the back door.

You could be the son of the cabinet secretary, or the daughter of the most powerful cabinet minister, but you can make it only if you write your examination better than the others. Else, how could I, coming from a very ordinary family and from the farthest corner of India, and both a linguistic and a religious minority, have made it to the IAS? Else, how could ordinary, uninfluential youngsters from Odisha and Bihar and UP get into the civil services every year?

Even in the United Nations, where I worked for 20 years, the entry is based on a compromised system of quotas and influence and a ‘you take my boy in your department, and I’ll take your boy in mine’ system. Indeed, there are few parallels to the merit identification system of civil service selection that the UPSC implements.

But that is all set to change. The government is planning a massive back-door entry at the top levels of the civil service. It began tentatively last year when about a dozen joint secretaries (JS) were inducted into the Government of India through the back door. It was lovingly labelled lateral entry.

Joint secretaries are the linchpins around which the government functions. Lateral entry of joint secretaries on a massive scale could lead to a system collapse; for, if you break the linchpin in a wheel, the vehicle collapses.

Alarmingly, however, the government is now proposing to expand the lateral entry to cover 50% of all the JS posts. What would make this most sinister is, if as is being reported, the lateral entry selection is not to be handled by the UPSC but by the Niti Aayog.

It sure would not be easy to compromise the UPSC, whose members hold tenured postings and whose systems cannot be easily bent to accommodate the party in power. So, it seems, the selection of the lateral entrants would be handed over to the Niti Aayog, a pliable organisation whose vice chairman and members owe their positions to the government in power and some of whose allegiance to the ruling party is well-known.

The Niti Aayog is a planning body, not a body with expertise in the selection of officials. It does not have functional expertise or experience in human resource selection at any level, let alone of higher civil servants. That is a nearly 100-year expertise that the UPSC has gathered.

Training, field experience

After selection, the young UPSC selectees undergo an intensive and varied two-year training before they are posted. Thereafter, during the first 15-20 years of their postings, they work in sub-divisions, districts, divisions and in state governments,all of which is on-the-job training that prepares them for policy-making in Delhi.

The middle-aged lateral entrants will not be coming in with any such long training and understanding of the varied Indian polity and systems.

One of the advantages that the All India Services bring into the central ministries is the field experience that they get working in rural, semi-urban and urban India. That is a diverse experience of India, of its people and their aspirations and the differing systems in place across the country that is brought to bear on governance in Delhi.

On the other hand, the lateral entrants would largely be managers with narrow specialities and likely to have little clue of the larger India, its people and systems.

Doubtless, the sectarian interests of those in power will largely determine the lateral entry selection. There is then little chance of a brilliant youth from rural Bihar to make it through the back door as a JS. Merit, as established on record through a fool-proof examination, will soon get an indecent burial.

Rest in Peace, Indian Civil Service.

Sardar Patel, whom the BJP now worships as one of its own, must be turning in his grave today, seeing his steel frame being destroyed by the very people who swear by his name. The Sardar’s heart in that massive statue in Gujarat must be melting.

For he, who knitted India’s many little kingdoms and principalities together into the nation we know today, knew that if the country’s steel frame was destroyed, it could not hold together for long.

BPSC Civil Service 64th Main Exam Admit Card 2019: Check Exam and Other Details Here

Source:

BPSC Civil Service Main Exam Ad,mit Card 2019: Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC)has published a notification for BPSC Civil Service 64th Main Exam 2019. All those candidates, who have qualified in BPSC 64th Prelims Exam, can apply for mains exam on or before 02 April 2019.

The admit card is expected to release in the last week of June or First week of July 2019.

BPSC has invited online applications for 64th Main Exam upto 02 April 2019. However, the application fee should be submitted online from 12 March to 26 March 2019. Candidates are also required to send the hard copy of online application along with other documents to the office of Bihar Public Service Commission, 15, Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg, Near Bailey Road, Patna, Bihar latest by 15 April 2019 upto 05:00 PM.

Bihar civil service main exam will consists of three papers including a qualifying paper General Hindi of 100 marks and General Studies Paper 1 and General Studies Paper 2. Both General Studies Papers will carry 300 marks each. There is an Optional Paper which the candidate has to choose while filling the Application Form. The Optional Paper is of 300 marks.

How to download the BPSC Civil Services Admit Card 2019?

  • Go the official website -http://onlinebpsc.bihar.gov.in/Index
  • Click on the Link ‘BPSC Civil Services Admit Card 2018 for Mains’
  • Provide username, password and captcha code
  • Click on login button.
  • Download the admit card and take a print out for future use

The candidates who qualify the BPSC Main Exam will be called for Interview. The final merit list will be prepared on the basis of performance Main Exam and Interview.

BPSC Civil Service 64th Main Exam 2019 Online Application: BPSC has Extended the online application date for Civil Service 64th Main Exam 2019. As per the revised date candidates can now apply for the Mains Exam till 30 April 2019. Bihar PSC 64th main exam will be conducted in the month of June.

Bihar civil service main exam will consists of three papers including a qualifying paper General Hindi of 100 marks and General Studies Paper 1 and General Studies Paper 2. Both General Studies Papers will carry 300 marks each. There is an Optional Paper which the candidate has to choose while filling the Application Form. The Optional Paper is of 300 marks.

BBPSC had invited online applications for 64th Main Exam upto 02 April 2019 while the application fee was submitted online from 12 March to 26 March 2019. Candidates were required to send the hard copy of online application along with other documents to the office of Bihar Public Service Commission, 15, Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg, Near Bailey Road, Patna, Bihar latest by 15 April 2019 upto 05:00 PM.

BPSC had announced 64th Civil Prelims Result on 16 February 2019 in which 295444 candidates appeared out of which 190109 candidates qualified the exam.

The candidates who qualify the BPSC Main Exam will be called for Interview. The final merit list will be prepared on the basis of performance Main Exam and Interview.