POLITICIZATION OF PPSC

he appointment of a politician as Chairman of the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) a few months before the assembly elections is being read as a political move. It certainly is not good news for the commission that is in the process of making recruitments.
For the past some years, successive governments have refrained from appointing politicians as heads of the commission. SK Sinha, a retired bureaucrat, who headed the commission till his demise in May this year, was, however, seen more as Amarinder’s man than a bureaucrat.
Since the scam that rocked the PPSC in 2002 when former journalist Ravi Sidhu was its chairman, no attempt has been made to cleanse the system. The commission remained mired in various controversies with Sinha himself coming under the Vigilance scanner.
Whichever party forms the next government in Punjab, the appointment of Harish Rai Dhanda, who resigned as SAD MLA from Ludhiana (West), does not augur well for the state. If the Congress forms the next government, it is unlikely to give him any task, he being a SAD loyalist. If the Akali-BJP government retains power, it will expect Dhanda to recruit those owing allegiance to the SAD-BJP. In either case, merit will be the casualty.
The Congress president, Capt Amarinder Singh, has questioned Dhanda’s credentials for the job while opposing the appointment of a politician to the important post. Congress Legislative Party leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal has said the post should go to a scholar if the appointments made are to be fair and on merit.
As the ruling alliance did not trust Sinha, recruitment procedures were delayed, several vacancies notified way back in 2009 have not been filled till date. The PPSC was assigned the task of recruiting 100 doctors in 2008 and 212 doctors in 2009. Despite claims of transparency, the appointment of at least 100 PCMS doctors created a controversy with the commission failing to provide information (under the RTI Act) on the selection criteria. The Tribune had carried a report on the matter, revealing that candidates with inferior qualifications but clout had been favoured.
Already, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau is investigating a case of alleged irregularities in the appointmen, though this had no direct link with the PPSC. The PPSC, established under Article 315 of the Constitution, is an independent body not subject to government control, charged with the responsibility of recruitment /management of public services.
At present the commission has seven members besides the chairman. The SAD-BJP government proposes to raise the strength to “adjust” some loyalists.