Kerala minister claims 10 PSC exam questions went unevaluated, calls for fresh investigation

Kerala Sports Minister O J Janeesh on Wednesday alleged irregularities in the PSC Planning Board examination and demanded the cancellation of appointments made from its rank list. Janeesh, who is also the Youth Congress state president, contended that reports claiming that answers to around 10 questions in the examination were not evaluated before the rank list was declared constitute a serious and unacceptable development.

"It is a serious matter that appointments were made to the Board a year ago based on such a rank list. The public cannot be blamed if they suspect that there was a conspiracy behind it. The candidate who secured the first rank in the examination is reportedly an active member of a Left-affiliated organisation," he told reporters here. He said that the fact that 10 questions were not evaluated came to light following an application filed under the Right to Information Act. He added that if the answers to those questions had been evaluated, the results would have been different.

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"The candidates and the public suspect that the examination was manipulated. Therefore, the Youth Congress is demanding the cancellation of the appointments made on the basis of the Planning Board examination rank list," he said.

He claimed that similar allegations and complaints had also been raised regarding appointments to the Kerala Administrative Service. He said that the Youth Congress was concerned that irregularities might have occurred in PSC examinations conducted over the past 10 years and called for a review of all examinations held during that period to ensure that no eligible candidate was unfairly left out.

"There are doubts that the PSC was politically misused during the last 10 years, as those who allegedly benefited from the manipulated rank lists were affiliated with Left organisations," he alleged. Janeesh said that Chief Minister V D Satheesan would be requested to look into the matter. He expressed doubts about the effectiveness of an internal vigilance inquiry by the PSC and emphasised that a time-bound investigation under the supervision of senior police officers was necessary. "The government will not protect the officials responsible for the alleged irregularities," he added.