Only 0.69 percent qualified for mains: Trimming KAS merit list is injustice, says candidates

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Administrative Service (KAS), introduced by the Kerala state government as the civil service of Malayalis, is losing its lustre. Not even one percent of the aspirants who wrote the preliminary examination held this time have reached the mains examination phase.

Out of the 97,204 candidates who appeared in the preliminary examination, only 0.69 percent have qualified for the mains. There are 308 candidates in Stream 1, which is direct recruitment, 211 in Stream 2 for non-gazetted officers, and 158 in Stream 3 for gazetted officers. Only 677 candidates from three streams qualified for the mains examination.

A high cut-off mark was set for each stream. It is estimated that fewer than 20 will be appointed when the rank list comes out after the rigorous descriptive mains examination and interview. The PSC is accused of trimming the rank list to reduce the number of candidates to the maximum. The PSC says the reason for the reduction in the merit list is the low number of vacancies reported. The mains exam is on October 17 and 18.

Four lakh candidates had appeared for the first KAS preliminary exam and the merit list included 2160 candidates in stream one, 1048 in stream two, and 773 in stream three. Candidates say that it is injustice that not even a thousand candidates are getting a chance to write the mains exam for the second KAS exam.