Even as Maharashtra is rocked by various scandals concerning the competitive examinations conducted by the state public service commission (MPSC) over the years, the latest scam that has generated considerable heat surrounds the written test held for the post of Talathi last year.
The opposition Congress party’s leader Vijay Wadettiwar has demanded an SIT probe into this. He alleged that a candidate got 214 marks for a question paper of 200 marks. He feels that it was clear how seriously the entire examination system was working and how the government had rigged the recruitment. He claimed that the candidate who had secured 214 marks in the Talathi examination had got just 54 marks in another examination, held for the post of a forest guard a few days ago. From this, it is understood how the examinations were conducted and how the marks were given. All the selected candidates should be interrogated by a judicial SIT. This was the biggest scam in Talathi examinations till date, he claimed.
Responding to Wadettiwar’s complaint, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has said that if some evidence comes forward, the government will be open to conducting a probe. Satyajit Tambe, MLC, also has demanded strict rules to be implemented to prevent malpractices in Talathi recruitment. “Examinations are conducted by introducing new technology in the recruitment of government jobs. However, the scams have not stopped. A strict law should be introduced regarding paper leaks or swapping of marks in exams,” Tambe said.
There have been demands to hold all such examinations through the MPSC. However, it is forgotten that the commission’s record, too, is not free of blemishes.
After the Talathi recruitment results have come out, the fate of prospective talathis who have cleared the examination has become uncertain. There is no clarity about how much the cut-off will be applied to the candidates. Will those who scored marks between 150 and 200 be held true or will they have to appear for the examination again? Thousands of candidates are restless because of this perceived anomaly.
The online examination for recruitment to 4657 talathi posts in the state was conducted by TCS from 17 August 17 to 14 September. The final merit list was released on 5 January. Since that day, there have been allegations that the examination paper was leaked beforehand and dummy candidates were allowed to appear. Former MP Raju Shetti has also submitted a memorandum to deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, demanding that the examination be conducted through the MPSC.
Due to this outrage, the Talathi recruitment examination has once again been caught in a serious controversy. The Competitive Examination Coordination Committee has questioned how could a candidate score 214 marks for a question paper of 200 and how this was possible when there was a gap of 14 days between the two examinations. There has been a scam in the recruitment exam and there is now a demand for a thorough probe into it.
The state government has clarified that the examination has been conducted through TCS company and whenever a large number of examinees are appearing, the number of sessions is high, the normalization process is forced. This is because considering the difficulty level of the questions taken in different sessions in different periods, it is a scientific process to apply the same measurement to all the candidates without injustice to any of the candidates.
This method of marks generalization has been used in the past for recruitment of jobs in all types of major examinations such as Railway Recruitment Board, SSC or MHADA. This ‘Marks Generalization’ had been widely publicised. However, due to ignorance about this process in the examination, some adverse media coverage has appeared. Since the marks normalization process is essential for the examinations conducted in multiple sessions, it has been conducted for the Talathi recruitment examination to avoid any injustice to any candidate, the government has asserted.
The Talathi Recruitment Examination 2023 was conducted till 14 September 2023 in 57 sessions in three parts. A total of 10,41,713 candidates had applied for the district-wise Talathi posts. Out of these, 8,64,960 candidates appeared for the actual examination. After the examination, the TCS company answered the queries asked by the candidates three times (total 149 questions). The doubt resolution process was completed on 4 January 2024. Then the marks normalization process was completed on the marks obtained by the candidates by answering the questions, taking into account various relevant factors.
The marks normalization method has been published on the website www.mahabhumi.gov.in on 27 September 2023. On 5 January, the normalized score obtained by the candidates as per this method was released on Talathi Bharti portal tab on the website www.mahabhumi.gov.in. On 7 January, the protests were evident through media coverage.
Now comes the intriguing part. The government has clarified that during the normalization process, the marks obtained by the candidates are increased or decreased according to the difficulty level. Therefore, the normalized marks of some candidates may exceed the total marks. A total of 48 candidates have secured more than 200 normalized marks in Talathi recruitment exam. It is important to publicize generalized values. Because when the selection process is started, the candidates who have obtained the highest normalized marks among the many candidates who have obtained reservation and similar marks will be selected. It will be possible to choose them rationally and there will be no confusion in the mind of the examinee regarding the exact marks. The said examination is conducted through TCS company and whenever a large number of examinees appear for the examination and when the number of sessions is more, the normalization process is forced to be done at that time. Because it is a scientific process to apply a single scale to all the candidates without doing injustice to the candidates by considering the difficulty level of the questions taken in different sessions in different periods. As the Marks Normalization process is essential for examinations conducted in multiple sessions, it has been carried out for Talathi Recruitment Examination to avoid unfairness to any candidate, it says further.
A newly-appointed Talathi receives about Rs.35000 a month as salary. Given the increasing demand for government jobs, the authorities need to urgently review the entire process of examination and marks obtained by each candidate in the interest of transparency. Otherwise, one more sordid chapter in the doubtful exercises will be added.
A Column By
Dilip Chaware – Senior Editor
A media professional for 43 years, with extensive experience of writing on
a variety of subjects; he is also a documentary producer and book author.
