NewzVille Desk
Delivering the inaugural address at the 25th National Conference of Chairpersons of All State Public Service Commission at Bengaluru in Karnataka today, the Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar said “Extensions in service, extensions in any form for a particular post are set back to those who are in line. It defies the logical principle of expectation. We have a doctrine of expectation. People devote decades to be in a particular groove. Extension indicates that some individual is indispensable. Indispensability is a myth. Talent abounds in this country. No one is indispensable. And therefore, it lies in the domain of public service commissions at the state and the central level that when they have a role in such kinds of situations, they must be firm.”
He stressed that, “It is with utmost restraint I am reflecting on an aspect. Public service commissions, the appointment cannot be driven by patronage, by favoritism. There are trends that are visible. I do not wish to reflect on them, but some of them are very painful. We must account ourselves to our conscience. We cannot have a public service commission Chairman or a member, wedded to a particular ideology or an individual. That will be undoing the essence and spirit of the framework of the constitution.”
Drawing attention towards post-retirement assignments, Shri Dhankhar said, “ Post-retirement recruitment is a problem. In some states it has been structured. Employees never retire, particularly those in the premium services. They get a number of ad-hoc nomenclatures. This is not good. Everyone in the country must have due and that due is defined by law. ……Any largesse of this kind is antithetical to what was visualised by framers of the Constitution.”
On paper leaks VP Dhankhar said that, “This is a menace. You have to curb. Your fairness of selection will have no meaning if paper leakages are there. And paper leakage has become an industry, a commerce. People, young boys and girls used to have fear of examinations. How difficult the question will be. How will we address it? Now they are having two fears. One is fear of examinations. Second, fear of leakage. So when they are giving their very best for several months and weeks to prepare for an examination, they receive the setback of leakage.
Highlighting the divisive and polarized nature of polity, the Vice-President said, “our polity at the moment is too divisive, too polarised. Interaction is not taking place at the premium level in political organizations. When it comes to nations, when the world is in a transformative phase, it is India’s century. That century can be fully fructified for people’s gain only when we have a calm political atmosphere…..We need political fire extinguishers. A political divisiveness, a vitiated political climate is far more dangerous than the climate change we are facing.”
“Harmony in polity is not just wishful thinking, a desirable facet. Harmony is imperative. If there is no harmony in polity, if the polity is polarized, deeply divisive, with no communication channels functioning, imagine you are in an earthquake, you are lost and you have no connection with the outside world, things will be terrible for you”, he added.
Thaawarchand Gehlot, Governor of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah, Chief Minister of Karnataka, Preeti Sudan, Chairman, UPSC, Alok Verma, Chairman, Haryana Public Service Commission, Shivashankarappa S. Sahukar, Chairman, Karnataka Public Service Commission and other dignitaries were also present on the occasion.
