Chairman of HP Public Service Commission, KS Tomar on Friday called on the Governor, Acharya Devvrat at Rajbhawan here and presented a document of new reforms and initiatives taken by the Commission to the Governor.
The Chairman of the Commission also briefed to the Governor about the new initiatives introduced by the Commission for improving its functioning.
The Governor appreciated the efforts of the Commission for bringing in important reforms and initiatives especially the step of providing optional languages (Hindi & English) for interviews, adoption of new pattern of State Administrative Services Examination on the analogy of Union Public Service Commission and re-designing of syllabi for various papers of this examination, introducing Toll Free Helpline and Bar Coded optical mark reader system for evaluation of answer Sheets etc.
Apprising the Governor, Tomar said that the Commission had decided to switch over from HAS pattern of written examination to IAS pattern which would be a revolutionary step and added that it would not only simplify the process but also save the efforts of aspirants.
He said that it aimed at providing equal playfield to candidates from various backgrounds and added that one optional subject of 300 marks was abolished which had been done in civil services and now there would be one optional subject of 200 marks which would help all candidates. He said that aptitude test will be of qualifying nature in the preliminary exam and Himachal contents would be part of all three General Studies papers which would be useful to Himachali candidates, he added.
Tomar said that new innovation of providing option to give interview in Hindi or English has tremendously helped rural candidates who face problem in communicating in English and added that as per the data, 80 to 90 percent candidates opted for Hindi as medium to give interview resulting in increase in number of intake of village background candidates in HAS, HPJS etc.