Hindi halts march of Haryana youths aspiring to become HCS officers

In another strange turn of events, only 61 candidates out of over 1,200, who wrote the HCS main examination on August 12-13 to bag one of the 111 advertised posts, passed the main examination

Twenty-five percent candidates selected for the Haryana Civil Services (HCS-executive branch) and other allied services last week by the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) barely scored 33-34% to pass the Hindi paper in the main examination, it has emerged.

The Haryana Public Service Commission on Monday allotted a cadre to all the selected candidates as per their order of merit. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The HPSC on Monday allotted a cadre to all the selected candidates as per their order of merit.

The analysis of the result data HPSC has declared along with the subject-wise and interview marks of selected 61 candidates reveals that among those who bagged the top 10 slots at least four candidates scored 34% marks in Hindi.

In another strange turn of events, only 61 candidates out of over 1,200, who wrote the HCS main examination on August 12-13 to bag one of the 111 advertised posts, passed the main examination.

“Even as Haryana is a Hindi-speaking state, it was the Hindi paper in which majority of those who wrote the main examination failed to score minimum 33% marks mandatory to qualify the interview,” said a senior HPSC official, who refused to be identified.

The official sources say as the number of candidates (61) who passed the main exam was much less than the advertised posts (111), the HPSC didn’t follow its own rule of calling candidates for the interview three times the number of advertised posts.

Hence, the 61 candidates were called for interviews held on October 9, and all of them were declared as selected on October 11, sparking a political storm in the state where recruitment by the HPSC often runs into controversies and legal tangles.

HPSC chairman Alok Verma refused to speak when contacted on Saturday and directed to meet HPSC secretary Mukesh Kumar Ahuja, who did not respond to text messages nor was he available when contacted over the phone in his office twice on Monday. His staff said he was in a meeting with the HPSC chairman.

As per the HPSC rules, a candidate is called for the personality test if he/she gets at least 45% in the main examination and scores “minimum 33% marks each in Hindi and English papers.”

“No candidate will be called for the viva voce unless he/she obtains at least 45% in the aggregate of all written papers and a score of minimum 33% marks each in Hindi and English papers,” the HPSC had said while advertising the posts in February this year.

As per the result data, at least 30% of the selected candidates scored between 35 and 40 marks in Hindi while 16 others got marks ranging from 41 to 50. Just two candidates obtained the highest 53 marks out of 100.

“I am not aware of the details...but I am sure the HPSC must have followed its own rules and guidelines while calling the candidates for the interview and finalising the result,” said MS Bhadhana, a former chairman of the HPSC.

The unsuccessful candidates alleged that HPSC is not revealing the subject-wise marks of those who failed to qualify the main examination.

A section of the candidates, who didn’t qualify the main exam, HT spoke to said the state government has the power to relax the minimum qualification marks criteria for this exam.

“It appears the evaluation of Hindi paper was very strict,” said the candidates, who also met a political aide of chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar in Gurugram.

These candidates said the apex court in the Haryana judicial service examination held in 2019 had advocated “moderation and grace marks” to ensure that more candidates make it to the interview level.

Deepak Chhikara, a banker who could not crack the main exam, said if the government or HPSC wanted, the situation could have been tackled by moderating marks so that more students could qualify the main exam and appear in viva voce.

Maths, the game changer optional subject

As per the data, the topper of the main examination got 27 rank in the interview. The second rank holder in the written exam secured 52 rank in the interview, and a candidate placed at 60 rank in the written obtained sixth rank in the interview.

The optional subject’s marks played a key role in deciding the overall merit as evident from the data that only 11 out of 61 selected candidates scored the qualifying 45% marks in Hindi, English and general studies.

At least 39 candidates (64%) out of a total of 61 had opted for sociology, mathematics and geography as optional subjects. At least 12 selected candidates whose optional subject was mathematics are in the top 16 ranks.

For instance, one selected candidate scored 32.38 % marks in Hindi, English and general studies, but he scored very high marks in mathematics and sailed through comfortably. Similarly, another top ranker with 39% marks in three subjects, got 84.50% marks in mathematics.

“ The average marks in mathematics optional are 71.17% whereas it is 49.46%, 43.25% and 42.50% in geography, public administration, etc...,” said Deepak. He said the Supreme Court has been suggesting the concerned authorities adopt “moderation or scaling” to provide a level playing field.

“How can a student of humanity compete with a mathematics student and score an equal percentage? Therefore, to strike a balance UPSC adopts a system called moderation or scaling,” said Parveen, another HCS aspirant.

“The apex court has stated in its rulings that moderation and scaling are scientific techniques to remove variation caused by factors, including multiple optional subjects, with varying difficulty levels. These methods are used by the UPSC to create a level playing field. Why HPSC is not following this method?”