Nexus of Good: A revolutionary shift

At a time when many recruitment agencies in the country, including the Staff Selection Board and Public Service Commission of many states, are bearing the brunt of students for various malpractices, mismanagement and delay in the examination process, there is soothing news from the land of the rising sun, Arunachal Pradesh. Arunachal Pradesh Staff Selection Board (APSSB) is scripting new records in terms of the examination process for Group-'C' posts.

The success saga of this Board is unique. The journey of the Board has been topsy-turvy. It all started with a scam in the LDC examination held on February 2, 2020, that rocked the entire state. The situation was alarming as this examination was only the third examination after the establishment of APSSB in 2018 through an Act of Assembly.

Hence, when the news of the scam came out, the youth were out in the streets protesting for the immediate arrest of persons involved including officers. There was also a demand to scrap the Board. The situation was very tense and the Government ordered inquiry both by the High-Level Inquiry Committee (HLIC) and the Special Investigation Cell (SIC) to unearth the scam.

The Government was firm in its decision and resolute in action. A decision was taken to change the entire Board and bring in a new set of officers. Accordingly, two IAS officers, Prashant Lokhande, and Santosh Kumar were brought as Chairman and Secretary-cum-Controller of Examination respectively. The mandate was very clear. It was to restore the faith of aspirants in the Board and the recruitment process based on merit.

The initial days were not easy. This was a new area for both the officers. More importantly, most of the staff members were being grilled by HLIC and SIC. Above all, as there were no standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place, a start had to be made from scratch. COVID related lockdown made matters worse.

It took 3-4 months to draft the SOPs that took care of every aspect related to the examination process. Roles and responsibilities of each exam functionary like District Superintendent, Centre Superintendent, Invigilator etc. were clearly defined to avoid any confusion. Further, one officer, appointed as Nodal Officer, was responsible for each examination.

As the Board was gearing up to conduct the first examination, it was discovered that the vendor dealing with the online application website had been arrested by the SIC as he was also allegedly found involved in the malpractice. So, there was another challenge to develop a new website to host all online applications and the Recruitment Process. However, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as this provided an opportunity to hire a vendor through a proper tendering process. NICSI empanelled vendor was finally selected through due process.

The task of developing SOPs was pretty interesting. Free-flowing discussions both with the internal team and with the stakeholders helped get everyone on board. SOPs got evolved after intensive discussions and through consensus.

When the first examination was conducted in September 2020 for various technical posts, there was excitement as well as apprehension. Fortunately, all went well as per the plan. Immediately after the examination, a committee of experts verified the question paper and answer key to avoid any controversy after the results regarding the correctness of questions and answers. The scanning team was also ready in advance and after the experts verified the question paper, scanning work started.

All preparations had been made in advance to announce the result on the same day. However, the process of computation continued till the early hours the next morning. The final result was hosted on the website at 4 am. Everybody was in for a surprise as nobody expected that the exam result could be published within 24 hours. This was unexpected but the big moment was yet to come.

Another sensitive issue was the disclosure of information related to the examination. In the past, the Board used to receive many RTI applications seeking a copy of the answer sheet/OMR sheet, cut-off marks, answer key, mark sheet etc. To ensure a reduction in RTI applications and to ensure total transparency, the Board decided to go for full disclosure and provided all the details related to examination, including their individual OMR sheet and mark sheet apart from cut-off marks and answer key. This exercise was repeated in February 2021 when the Board conducted an examination for various technical posts under the Department of IPR. This examination was also conducted successfully and the Board surpassed its previous record and declared the result of the examination within 9 hours.

Despite the aforementioned successes, the main challenge was to re-conduct the cancelled examination for the posts of LDC. This was spread across 11 districts. The exam was conducted smoothly on March 21, 2021, without a report of any untoward incident. The examination material was received by the Board on March 22 and the scanning of OMR sheets started at 8 pm on March 23. This process continued throughout day and night and the result was uploaded on the website at 10 pm on March 24. The skill test for shortlisted candidates was conducted on March 28, and the final result was hosted on the website in the early morning of March 29, 2021.

After this, many exams have been conducted by the APSSB and fairness, transparency, promptness and merit have become the new normal in the Board.

The Board has created a record not only in fairness, merit and promptness but it has also distinguished itself in terms of transparency. It provides an answer key, cut-off marks, individual scorecard and OMR sheet to each candidate by ensuring 100 per cent public disclosure and transparency. Apart from this, the Board has also adopted the practice of appointing Senior Government Officers (mostly AIS Officers) as observers and coordinators to oversee the conduct of examinations in the districts in line with the appointment of observers by ECI during General Elections.

The Board is now working on short term and long-term plans. Under the short-term plan, all backlog vacancies are to be cleared by this year-end and to maintain an annual calendar from the coming year. The plan is also to ensure that all vacancies coming to the Board are cleared within a year. Long term plan is to use the latest technologies in the examination process. This would include computer-based tests and close supervision of the entire examination process through a Smart Data Centre. The idea is to revolutionize the entire Government Recruitment Process so that the faith of the candidates in the merit-based examination remains intact.

This wonderful team led by Prashant Lokhande and Santosh Kumar present a wonderful example of Nexus of Good as they have demonstrated that by using technology and taking stakeholders on board, they can make things happen. It is an example that can and should be emulated by other States.

Views expressed are personal