Thiruvananthapuram: The state Public Service Commission (PSC) will soon introduce a system wherein candidates will have to confirm their participation one month prior to the recruitment test. This is part of Commission's efforts to check the growing number of absentees and reduce the financial burden on state exchequer. According to the new system only those who confirm will be allowed to download the hall ticket. Candidates can download the hall tickets up to 15 days prior to the examination, sources said.
Applicants could confirm their appearance by clicking the option in the candidate's profile. The commission would close this option about a month before the examination so that it would be able to get a clear idea about the number of candidates appearing for the examination. At presents, PSC spends over '500 per candidate for conducting a single examination even though less than half of the total applicants turn up for the test, sources said. The PSC has to arrange infrastructure facilities anticipating that all the applicants would be appearing for the exam. Huge manpower also has to be employed in conducting the examination, sources said.
PSC was also considering imposing fine on candidates who fail to turn up. However, there would be problems in levying such a fine for already notified tests as they had not announced such a clause in the notification, sources said. Another option under PSC's consideration was for collecting a certain fee as caution deposit during the submission of application and refunding it only if the candidate appeared for the examination, sources said. Though, the PSC had earlier mooted an idea of introducing application fee for the examinations, it had to be dropped following the opposition from the state government.
