HPSC set to get ‘saffron’ touch; will now have nine members

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 22

The Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC), which recruits people for gazetted posts in the state, including the prestigious Haryana Civil Services (HCS), is all set to get the ‘saffron’ touch.

The Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government is set to increase the strength of the commission from seven to nine members, including the chairman. The increase in the strength of the commission, which had become a parking place for politicians and their favourites over the years, is being seen as a ‘balancing act’ by the government which obviously wanted its ‘own members’ in the commission.

Sources said a policy decision to make the commission a nine member body from the seven member body had been taken and it would later be ratified by the cabinet.

Currently, the commission is filled with Congress appointees which raises a question mark over its impartially in conducting the examinations. In fact, transparency in government job recruitments was one of the poll promises of the BJP in the parliamentary and assembly elections last year.

While Chairman Manbir Singh Bhadana is considered close to certain Congress leaders, among the incumbent members, Neelam Singh, who hails from Bhiwani, is wife of Sandeep Singh, a Congress leader, while Rajesh Vaid (Sirsa) has been a Congress leader.

Savita Tayal, an educationist, is the wife of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s former Principal Secretary ML Tayal while Jagannath is a cousin of former Union Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Kumari Selja. Surender Sharma is reportedly an old associate of Hooda.

Harinder Pal Singh, a close Hooda confidant, was also HPSC member but he had to resign on November 14, 2013, after he was arrested in Palwal for his alleged involved in an attempt-to-murder case.

Recently, the Khattar Government appointed Bharat Bhushan, a senior party leader, as the chairman of the Haryana Staff Selection Commission.