Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh) [India], August 19 (ANI): Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday alleged that unprecedented irregularities took place in the APPSC Group-1 examinations conducted during the previous government’s tenure and said procedures were violated in the recruitment of Group-1 officers, whose services are crucial in shaping the future of the state.
Speaking during a special discussion in the Legislative Assembly, the Chief Minister said answer scripts were evaluated by plumbers, electricians, and security guards. He said APPSC was a key institution responsible for selecting senior officials for the state and criticised the previous government for undermining the credibility of the commission.
Chandrababu Naidu said the person who violated rules while occupying the Chief Minister’s chair during the previous government was absent from the Assembly instead of answering the people on the issue. He challenged the Opposition to provide responsible answers rather than engage in conspiracies and counter-attacks round the clock.
The Chief Minister said 1.14 lakh candidates had applied for the Group-1 notification issued in 2018, of whom 325 were shortlisted. He said the rules were completely disregarded in conducting an examination for which candidates worked extremely hard to secure government jobs.
He pointed out that even Class 10 answer scripts are transported under tight security with police escorts, whereas the answer scripts of the Group-1 examination, which selects officers to serve the state, were handled in an arbitrary manner without adequate security.
Chandrababu Naidu said that although the High Court had directed that manual evaluation be undertaken instead of digital evaluation, affidavits were filed in a manner that allegedly misled the court. He said that instead of rectifying the process after the court’s directions, orders were issued for works worth Rs 1.19 crore to facilitate evaluation at Hai-Land resort.
He further said interviews were conducted and appointments were made even while the court’s orders were in force. The High Court subsequently examined the matter and constituted a three-member committee headed by a retired judge to inquire into the issue.
The Chief Minister strongly criticised the alleged evaluation of answer scripts for a prestigious examination like Group-1 by unqualified private individuals. He said electricians, drivers, plumbers, security guards, homemakers, unemployed persons, sales executives and laboratory technicians were engaged in evaluating answer scripts.
He said the evaluation that should have been carried out by university professors and Heads of Departments was instead entrusted to teachers, lecturers, and other allegedly ineligible persons, amounting to a serious violation of procedure.
According to the Chief Minister, a panel of 158 persons was selected, of whom 72 were assigned evaluation duties, while 25 had allegedly been appointed unofficially. He further alleged that another 66 evaluators unofficially evaluated examination papers.
He said evaluation-related material was sent to private individuals’ laptops and that PDF copies of answer scripts were shared through private email accounts, Google Drive, and WhatsApp. The answer scripts were allegedly moved without authorisation from the APPSC strong room and kept at Hai-Land for 84 days. He said the evaluation was initially conducted in Hyderabad and subsequently at Hai-Land.
Chandrababu Naidu further alleged that Rs 1.14 crore was spent on logistics for the evaluation.
The Chief Minister said that after Gautam Sawang assumed charge as the new Chairman, orders were issued for manual evaluation. He said 49,000 duplicate OMR slips were printed.
He said different handwriting, alterations, additions, and overwriting were detected in the answer scripts. Of the 734 OMR slips examined, alterations were found in 718, he said. The fact that 21 slips had no signatures at all demonstrated the seriousness of the alleged irregularities, he added.
The Chief Minister recalled that he had repeatedly stated that the State had witnessed destruction between 2019 and 2024. He alleged that the previous rulers damaged the State’s image, from public platforms to its overall brand and eroded public confidence in various government institutions.
“Institutions are not meant for individuals; they exist for the future of the youth,” he said, stressing that there must be a fear of stringent punishment for wrongdoing.
Chandrababu Naidu said the Assembly is a platform for accountability and that it is the responsibility of those in public life to explain the facts to the people from the Assembly. Those responsible must explain why such incidents occurred instead of evading responsibility, he said.
The Chief Minister said the irregularities in the Group-1 examinations would be comprehensively analysed and further action would be taken. He announced that APPSC would be completely overhauled to ensure that such incidents do not recur, with transparent evaluation procedures and stronger security standards put in place.
He said reforms would be undertaken after obtaining suggestions from the public and intellectuals. The system needs to be thoroughly reformed to ensure that such irregularities never recur, he said. He urged the people to consider what the future of the State would have been if such a serious scam had taken place during the previous government’s tenure. (ANI)
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