'The entire interview process is transparent, where a coding system conceals the candidates' details such as name, registration number, age, and reservation category. The interview board is not privy to the candidates' personal details. The grading system is used rather than marking as 'Not found suitable.' After queries raised by Anupriya Patel, central minister and chief of Apna Dal (S), on the selection process, the Yogi government has provided a two-page response.
The Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission's (UPPSC) reply to Patel's concerns emphasizes the strict adherence to reservation norms in educational institutions. If an OBC, SC, or ST candidate is not selected, the vacancies are not filled by any other category.
Seats are carried forward
The government clarifies in their response that if no successful candidate is found for a position, it is carried forward for the same reserved category, not reallocated to any other category. The practice of converting reserved seats for the reserved groups to general category seats is neither provisioned nor has it ever been performed, and the government will not authorize such an action.
Details provided in the response are:
The chief minister has been briefed that principal institutions conducting direct appointments via interviews have submitted their respective procedures to the commission for achieving the highest standards of quality and transparency. The UPPSC ensures this by:
(i) A coding-based interview process that shields details like the candidate's registration number, name, reservation category, and age, ensuring the screening committee does not access the personal information of the candidates.
(ii) The interview panels are bipartite.
(iii) Separate interview committees are appointed for each session.
(iv) 'Not Suitable' is not annotated by the interview committees, which instead assign gradings based on average marks approved by both members and technical advisers.
(v) The cut-off marks for interviews are predetermined by the commission, with 40 percent for general, EWS, and OBC and 35 percent for SC and ST candidates.
(vi) In scenarios where there are no candidates available from a category that meets the minimum qualifying marks against the vacancies, the commission does not have the authority to convert the vacancies to another category, but follows government directives to carry them forward appropriately.
Anupriya Patel's appeal to CM Yogi in her letter stated:
Union Minister Anupriya Patel, in a letter addressed to CM Yogi Adityanath on Friday, requested that the repeated process of declaring the reserved posts for OBC, SC, and ST categories as 'Not found suitable' and converting them to an unreserved status should be stopped immediately. This measure would prevent any discontent among candidates from these categories.
Source: aajtak
Request to keep reserved seats unconverted
Patel also requested the government take prompt action to fill these seats exclusively from the reserved categories for which they are intended. This would ensure no resentment festers among candidates from these groups. She emphasized that the appointment process, no matter how often it may need to be conducted, should always seek to fill seats from the categories they are reserved for, rather than declaring them 'Not found suitable' and making them unreserved.
