APPSC Official website psc.ap.gov.in Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission APPSC has launched its own official website www.psc.ap.gov.in. psc.ap.gov.in website is responsive mode i.e it can be viewed in Mobiles easily. APPSC Departmental Exams are conducted Online in psc.ap.gov.in with all standards . Recruitments through APPSC and Dept Test details will be published in APPSC Official website www.psc.ap.gov.in
HISTORY
The A.P. Public Service Commission came in to existence on 1st November, 1956 with
the formation of the State of Andhra Pradesh. Before this, there was Andhra Public
Service Commission in the Andhra State and Hyderabad Public Service Commission in
the Hyderabad State. Andhra Service Commission came in to existence only in 1953
after the bifurcation of composite Madras State into Andhra and Madras States.
On the eve of formation of Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission, Andhra Public
Service Commission was functioning with a Chairman and two Members and Hyderabad
Public Service Commission was functioning with one Member. Hence, A.P. Public Service
Commission was constituted with a Chairman and 3 Members. With increasing work load,
Government enhanced the Members as five in the year 1981 and later to Chairman and
7 Members in the year 1983. Government again reviewed the strength in 1994 and enhanced
it to Chairman and 9 Members. This is the present strength.
Position under the Constitution
Duties and functions:-
The Public Service Commissions had been established under Article 315 of the Constitution
of India. The functions of the Commission are enumerated in the Article 320 of the
constitution.
The statutory functions of the Commission are as follows:-
- Direct Recruitment (Article 320 (1))
- Recruitment by transfer (Article 320(3)(b))
- Statutory rules relating to services (Article 320 (3)(a)&(b)
- Disciplinary cases (Article 320(3)© and regulations 17(1)(a) to (e))
- Reimbursement of legal expenses (Article 320(3)(d))
- Wound and extraordinary pension cases (Article 320(3)(e))
In addition the Commission is entrusted with the following items of work:-
1. Conduct of Departmental Tests for several departments.
2. Conduct of examination for admission to RIMC, Dehradun.
3. Conduct of Half yearly examination for IAS and IPS Officers and Proficiency tests
for AIS Officers.
4. Watching of temporary appointments exceeding 3 months and according concurence
for their continuance (regulation 16)
5. Consultation in cases of appointment of contract extending over 5 years (Regulation
16).
Regulations and Rules of Procedure
In the year 1963 Government of Andhra Pradesh brought out regulations called “Andhra
Pradesh Public Service Commission Regulations” vide G.O.Ms.No.489, G.A.D., dt: 23.4.1963.
These Regulations were based on the Madras Public Service Commissions Regulations
1950, adhoc regulations issued for the year 1954, 1956 & 1957 by the Andhra Government
and the Hyderabad Public Service Commission Regulations 1952.
Regulations specify the composition of the Commission, conditions of service of
Chairman, Members and other staff. They also specify scales of pay, matters in respect
of which Commission shall be consulted and matters in respect of which Commission
shall not be consulted. It also indicates services under the purview of the Commission
to make appointments through direct recruitments.
The A.P. Public Service Commission has made rules of procedures to regulate its
procedure in relating to performance of its functions. The rules prescribe procedure
to be followed with regard to recruitment by transfer/promotions, disciplinary cases
etc.,
TRANSPARENCY IN THE FUNCTIONING
OF A.P.P.S.C.
The framers of Constitution of India have evinced great caution while framing the
provisions for formation and functioning of Public Service Commissions with the
view that those who head these institutions would discharge their functions in utmost
judicious manner keeping at bay the factors of caste, creed, nepotism, personal
bias and above all corruption. The unemployed youth expect that the Commission would
pick the creamy layer among the very best and thereby the right man is chosen for
the right job. Any minor deviation from this concept would result in maladministration
as a person selected would normally be in public employment in three decades or
more and wrong selection would result in heavy expenditure to public exchequer and
the Commission will not be in a position to undo the mistakes, if any, caused during
the process of selection.
In this backdrop, Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission in its endeavour to conform
to the spirit underlying the formation of Public Service Commissions, has introduced
the following measures to ensure fair and transparent process of selections.
1. WRITTEN TEST MANDATORY
FOR ALL RECRUITMENTS:
Notwithstanding the fairness with which they are conducted, more often than not
the proceedings of interviews are always a matter of Public debate, presumptions
and criticism. To wipe out the apprehensions among the job seekers Andhra Pradesh
Public Service Commission has made written test mandatory for all recruitments,
irrespective of the number of candidates. For certain recruitments the Commission
has done away with oral test.
2. REDUCTION OF INTERVIEW
MARKS:
The Apex Court has framed certain guidelines to allot 12.5% marks for the oral test.
However the Commission has further reduced the oral marks to 10%, thus keeping the
main thrust on the performance in written examination.
3. CONSTITUTION OF INTERVIEW
BOARDS:
The interview boards are constituted a few minutes prior to the commencement of
interviews by draw of lots. Thus the selection of Members to sit on the boards is
by a transparent procedure. The participation of respective Departmental Heads and
Subject Experts is a must and in fact they in turn decide the “grade”, whereby the
role of Chairman/Members is strictly confined to awarding of marks within the grade
so decided.
4. SEALED COVER SYSTEM:
The Commission in the recent years has introduced a novel system of sealed covers
for interviewing the candidates i.e., whenever two or more interview boards are
constituted in view of large number of candidates, the lists of candidates in equal
numbers would be closed in sealed covers which in turn would be placed in the hands
of candidates assembled in a hall and the candidates themselves would pick up and
open the covers to decide their board of interview.
5. DISPLAY MARKS:
Delays are the root cause of criticism against Public Service Commissions which
lead to misapprehensions. Therefore, the aggregate marks of written and oral tests
are released community and zone wise on the same day evening after the conclusion
of interviews and the candidates are in a position to know their status and their
chances of selection.
6. ADAPTABILITY TO CHANGING
SCENARIO:
In 2006 APPSC decided to review the scheme of examination for Group-I and Group-II
services. An immediate provocation for this was the unrest in the minds of the candidates
about different optionals. Candidates felt that selection of optionals gave unfair
advantage because of difference in standards of paper for different optionals. Earlier
the Commission had examined the issue of scaling, so as to equate the different
optionals so that candidates of equal ability will receive equal final marks regardless
of difficulty of test. At that time Commission had arrived at the conclusion that
scaling though desirable is difficult to apply in practice. As a part of the review
process Commission addressed more than 100 experts in the State outlining the issues
in work and requesting the experts for their feed back. The response to the letter
of APPSC was more than 50%. All experts agreed that the existing scheme of examination
needs to be reviewed. However, the proposed solutions were different. In view of
this APPSC decided to conduct a seminar of these experts at Hyderabad in 2006.
Most of the experts argued for compulsory papers only without any optionals. They
felt that optionals only test the domain knowledge, which is not relevant to the
administrative jobs and that it is better to test candidates with reference to subject
which are relevant to the jobs. They further suggested development of syllabi for
the compulsory papers can be entrusted to an expert committee. They identified the
following skills for an effective administrator.
i) Problem analysis and suggestion of solutions.
ii) Knowledge of society and the economy.
iii) Awareness of technology and its potentiality.
iv) Quantitative skills and mental ability.
v) Knowledge of Constitution, Law and Public Administration.
The Commission discussed the recommendations of the seminar and after prolonged
deliberations decided to recommend to the Government scheme of examination for Group-I
and Group-II services consisting of compulsory papers only without any optional
papers. The Commission addressed the Government accordingly. A series of meetings
were held at the level of Chief Secretary. After detailed discussions the Government
approved the scheme of examination as proposed by the Commission and directed the
Commission to evolve the syllabus for the compulsory papers.
Commission entrusted the evaluation of syllabus to different subject experts. Several
meetings were held to fine tune the syllabi and to define its content. The new syllabi
is given in the Annexure for Group-I and Group-II Services Notifications.
In addition to the competitive examinations for direct recruitment for various posts,
Departmental tests are conducting at 13 District Head Quarters twice in a year in
conventional method for the employees of A.P State Government which are prescribed
to them to be passed during the probation or for promotion to the next higher category.
For conducting Departmental Examinations the Commission have to send bulk Answer
Sheet Booklets through transport system for which lot of expenditure is incurred
and have to bring back the answer scripts to Commission for valuation. In the year
2011 the Commission have introduced objective type method in Departmental Tests
with OMR sheets as answer sheets. By this process lot of expenditure has been reduced
and the transport of the OMR sheets to the Commission’s Office for valuation is
became easy.
