Dr Sanjeev Chopra, former director at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), on Friday suggested a major reform in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exams. In a recent interview, Dr Chopra said that the UPSC should consider reducing the number of attempts for students belonging to the general classes.
The ex-LBSNAA chief added that the number of attempts should also be reduced accordingly. His take comes amid the raging controversy around IAS trainee Puja Khedkar, who has been accused of misuse of power during her training in Pune and demanding facilities that she wasn't entitled to as a probationer.
"Another reform that I would like to suggest to UPSC is that the validity of the exam could be two years. Also, the number of attempts could be reduced to two years for general candidates and reduction may be done for reserved candidates accordingly," he said in an interview with The Indian Express.
He also mentioned that any exam can't judge whether a candidate is ethically competent or not. Dr Chopra noted that exams are meant to check how much information a candidate can memorise and express in a limited time.
Dr Chopra also said that the Ethics Paper is not relevant to the examination. He explained that this particular paper should be substituted with an additional paper based on the choice or priority of service by the candidate, such as those who have IFS can be given a test on International Affairs.
Moving ahead from the changes that UPSC could make, Dr Chopra said that an IAS officer is not a movie star or a politician.
"An IAS officer is not a film star or a politician. Many times, candidates are not able to understand what it means to be an IAS officer and end up making a mess of their lives," he said. The former LBSNAA director, however, did not express his grouse without giving some advice on what candidates need to focus on.
He said that the candidates' priority should be to focus on achieving professional competency, which can only be ascertained by the quality of work that the candidate has done. Dr Sanjeev Chopra also had some serious umbrage with the civil servants being on social media.
"The trend of civil servants being on social media is wrong. With respect to the training process, I can say that one can pick only one what one wants, and that is true for anything in life," the veteran bureaucrat signed off.