MPSC interview questions and the state PSC interview: marks, panels, schedules and 30 questions with answers

Tell us about yourself and your district.

I am Rohit Pawar from Latur in Marathwada. I did my B.Tech in Civil Engineering from Government College of Engineering, Aurangabad, worked two years with L and T on the Samruddhi Expressway, and left to prepare for Rajyaseva. Latur is known for its dal mills and for the 2016 water train that brought drinking water by rail. That image is why I chose Revenue as my first preference: a Deputy Collector in Marathwada spends half the year on water, and I want to be the officer who plans it in advance rather than the one who calls for the train.

Why did you leave a private job to join state service, and why not UPSC?

I gave UPSC two attempts and reached the Mains once, but I realised in that period that the work I actually want is in Maharashtra: Marathwada's water, the sugar belt's labour and the cooperative sector are state subjects. A Deputy Collector here deals with them directly. I did not leave L and T for job security; I left because supervising a culvert on an expressway taught me how much depends on the Tehsildar who clears land, and I want to be on that side.

Your graduation marks are average. Why should we trust you with a sub-division?

They are 61 percent, and I will not dress that up. In the second year my father's shop in Jalna closed and I worked evenings at a tuition centre, which cost me a semester. From the third year my marks climbed every semester. I think a sub-division needs someone who has managed a bad year without quitting more than it needs someone with a clean transcript, but I accept the board may weigh it differently.

What is your post preference order and why Deputy Collector over DSP?

Deputy Collector, then Deputy SP, then Tehsildar. I am a planner by temperament: at L and T I was happiest in the scheduling meeting, not on the night shift. A Deputy Collector's work, land, revenue, elections, disaster response, rewards that. I respect the police side and would serve well as DySP, but I know from my cousin who is a PSI in Nanded that it demands a temperament for confrontation that I would have to build rather than bring.

What do you do in your free time, and what has it taught you?

I play tabla; I have been learning for eleven years and I passed Visharad from Gandharva Mahavidyalaya in 2019. It taught me laya, which is timing, and to accompany rather than lead when the singer is on stage. In administration I think that matters: a new SDM should accompany the Collector's plan before trying to set the tempo. I also perform at the Ganeshotsav mandal in Latur every year, which is where I learnt to work with a committee of twenty people who all think they are the president.

You are from an OBC family and wrote the exam in Marathi medium. Does that limit you anywhere?

In English fluency, yes, I am improving it and I write all my notes in English now. In understanding the people I will serve, no; in Latur three out of four citizens who walk into a Tehsil office speak only Marathi. My category gave me a relaxation in the attempt limit and I am not shy about that; the reservation exists for exactly the gap my father's generation faced. What I owe in return is to be as good an officer as the one selected in the open category.

What is the one thing wrong with your home district that you would fix first?

Groundwater. Latur has over 60,000 borewells and the water table drops every rabi season because sugarcane is grown on a drought-prone plateau. I would not ban sugarcane; that is politics beyond an SDM. I would enforce the Groundwater Act's well-registration provisions, push Jalyukt Shivar structures in the worst twenty villages, and publish village-wise water table data every quarter so that farmers see the trend. The first step is information, because today nobody in a village knows how fast their own water is falling.

MPSC: why is Marathwada backward when Western Maharashtra is prosperous?

Three reasons in order. Rainfall: Marathwada sits in the rain shadow of the Sahyadri and gets about 700 mm against 2,000 in the Konkan, with high variability. History: it joined Maharashtra from the Nizam's Hyderabad state in 1956 with little irrigation or industry, and the 1994 Statutory Development Board was meant to correct the backlog. Politics: the sugar cooperatives that built Western Maharashtra's capital never took root here. The way out is micro-irrigation, dryland horticulture and the Aurangabad and Jalna industrial corridor, not another water scheme on paper.

MPSC: what is your view on the Maratha reservation demand?

The Supreme Court struck down the 2018 SEBC Act in 2021 because it breached the 50 percent ceiling without exceptional circumstances. The 2024 Act with a 10 percent quota is again under challenge. As an officer my view has to be procedural: the state must show backwardness with data, which is why the Shukre Commission survey matters, and any quota must survive the Indra Sawhney ceiling or the ceiling itself must be revisited by a larger bench. On the ground, the distress behind the demand is agrarian, and that is where an SDM can act regardless of the court.

RPSC: what is the ERCP and why was it stuck for years?

The Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project is meant to carry surplus monsoon water from the Chambal basin to thirteen eastern districts including Jaipur, Alwar and Bharatpur. It was stuck because it was designed at 50 percent dependability while inter-state water sharing norms assume 75 percent, so Madhya Pradesh objected and the Centre would not fund it as a national project. The 2024 MoU between Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and the Centre, now the modified Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal link, is the way through. As an SDM in Dausa, the question is land acquisition and compensation, not hydrology.

RPSC: paper leaks have hurt Rajasthan's recruitment credibility. What would you do as an officer?

The 2022 Act with up to life imprisonment and the SIT are the deterrent side; the prevention side is where an administrator works. Printing at multiple presses, sealed-box tracking with GPS, randomised exam centres and CCTV with live monitoring are now routine for RPSC, and I would add surprise checks on centre superintendents. I would be careful not to talk as if the whole system is corrupt; most selections are clean, and the credibility of the officer sitting across from me depends on saying that honestly.

MPPSC: what did the cheetah project at Kuno teach us about administration?

Two things. One, that a flagship project needs the carrying capacity worked out before the launch: Kuno's area was debated and cheetah deaths from heat and infection followed. Two, that the local community has to see a stake: Sheopur's villagers were relocated for lions that never came and then cheetahs that did. If I were SDM of Sheopur I would make eco-tourism income and compensation for livestock loss visible within the first year, because a project the village resents will not survive.

MPPSC: how does PESA change the work of an SDM in a tribal block?

Under the Madhya Pradesh PESA Rules of 2022 the Gram Sabha in a scheduled area has powers over minor minerals, minor forest produce, local markets, liquor regulation and the approval of plans. For an SDM that means land acquisition or a sand lease cannot be processed without the Gram Sabha's resolution, and migration of labour has to be registered with it. The work shifts from giving orders to convening the Sabha properly, with quorum and minutes, so that its decision stands up if challenged.

UPPSC: what is ODOP and does it work?

One District One Product identifies a traditional product per district, Bhadohi carpets, Moradabad brass, Firozabad glass, Kannauj perfume, and gives credit, common facility centres, GI tagging and marketing support. Exports from ODOP districts have risen and the scheme was adopted nationally. Where it falls short is at the artisan level: a Bhadohi weaver still sells to an exporter at a fixed rate. The fix is producer companies and direct platforms like the GeM listing, which an SDM can push by getting the district industries centre to form them.

UPPSC: a flood is forecast on the Ghaghara in your tehsil in 48 hours. What do you do as SDM?

First hour: convene the tehsil control room, confirm the forecast with the Central Water Commission gauge and the irrigation department, and alert the Lekhpals and Pradhans of the villages inside the 2019 flood line. Next six hours: move pregnant women, the elderly and livestock from the lowest villages to the identified school shelters, stock the shelters, and position NDRF or SDRF boats and the health team. Then: embankment patrols, a public announcement schedule, and a list of names at each shelter so that nobody is lost. After the water drops: damage survey within seven days for compensation under the SDRF norms.

Kerala PSC: what is the Kerala model and where is it failing now?

The Kerala model is high social development, literacy, life expectancy and infant mortality at Scandinavian levels, achieved at a low per-capita income through public health, education, land reform and remittances. It is failing on three fronts: fiscal stress, with the state fighting the Centre on borrowing limits; an ageing population with the young emigrating; and waste and human-wildlife conflict as new public health and safety problems. A Deputy Collector sees all three in one district: pensions delayed, youth gone, and a tiger near a Wayanad village.

TNPSC: what should a Tamil Nadu officer say about NEET?

The state's position is that a single national entrance test disadvantages rural, Tamil-medium and government-school students, and the Rajan Committee data showed the share of such students in MBBS seats fell after NEET. The counter-view is that a common test stopped capitation and private-college malpractice. The 2021 Bill to exempt Tamil Nadu was refused assent by the President in 2024. As an officer I implement the law that stands, and the practical response at district level is the 7.5 percent quota for government-school students and free NEET coaching through the school education department.

KPSC: Bengaluru's lakes and floods, what went wrong?

Bengaluru had over 280 lakes connected by rajakaluves, storm-water channels, that carried water from one to the next. Encroachment on the channels and lake beds, including by layouts and tech parks, broke the chain, so a heavy rain in Bellandur or Mahadevapura has nowhere to go. The remedy is survey and removal of encroachments on the kaluve width as the High Court directed, buffer zones enforced, and the lake-wise development plans under the Karnataka Tank Conservation Act actually funded. As an Assistant Commissioner my tool is the revenue survey record, which is where the encroachment is proved.

An MLA calls you at 11 pm to release a sand truck seized by your Tehsildar. What do you do?

I would hear him out courteously, note what he says, and tell him that the truck was seized under the minor minerals rules and will be released only through the process: a penalty order after the driver and owner are heard, which the Tehsildar will complete the next working day. I would inform the Collector of the call before I sleep, in writing, so that no version of it surprises her. Most such calls end there if you are polite and clear; the ones that do not are exactly the ones a written record protects you from.

Courtesy, the rule, the written record, the senior informed. Never say you would refuse angrily.

A communal flare-up is starting in a market town in your sub-division during a festival procession. First three actions?

One: reach the spot with the DySP and get the two processions physically separated by a police line, and the music stopped. Two: get the peace committee members, both communities' leaders whom we met before the festival, to the spot and on the loudspeaker. Three: prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the BNSS and internet suspension only if rumours are spreading faster than we can counter them. Then stay there through the night. What the board checks is whether I prepared the peace committee before the festival.

Your Collector asks you to show a scheme's targets as achieved before an inspection when they are not. What do you do?

I would show her the real numbers first, in private, with the reason for the gap and a date by which we can genuinely close it. If she still wants the inflated figure, I would decline in writing, politely, and submit the true figure under my signature. Falsifying a government record is a disciplinary and criminal matter, and no Collector will back me later if it comes out. In my experience most seniors are asking you to find a way, not to lie; I would offer the way.

A woman in a village says the Lekhpal demanded money for a land mutation. There is no proof. What next?

I would register her complaint formally and check the mutation file: how long has it been pending, and were other mutations from the same Lekhpal cleared faster? A pattern of delay is proof enough for a transfer and a preliminary inquiry under the conduct rules. I would complete her mutation myself within the week and tell her so, because the fastest way to break a bribe is to remove the delay that creates it. I would also put a mutation dashboard with pendency days on the tehsil notice board.

Is prohibition in Bihar or Gujarat good policy? Answer as an administrator.

The intent is social, domestic violence and family income, and surveys in Bihar show some fall in consumption and a rise in household spending on food. The costs are a parallel economy, hooch deaths, the burden on police and courts, and the jailing of the poor rather than suppliers. As an administrator I do not get to choose the policy; I get to make its enforcement less unequal: target the supply chain, use the amended Act's fine-and-release provision for first-time consumers, and run de-addiction centres rather than only raids.

What is the difference between a Tehsildar's and an SDM's job, in practice?

The Tehsildar is the executive revenue officer: mutation, land records, recovery, certificates and the first court for land disputes. The SDM supervises several tehsils, is the sub-divisional magistrate for law and order and the appellate authority for many of the Tehsildar's orders, runs elections and disaster response, and coordinates every department in the sub-division. In short the Tehsildar runs the office; the SDM runs the area. I would spend my first month in the Tehsildar's record room, because an SDM who cannot read a khatauni gets misled.

Give an example of a time you took a decision that people around you disliked.

At L and T on the Samruddhi site I stopped concreting a culvert at 2 am because the slump test failed twice, which meant 40 workers idle until morning and a supervisor shouting at me. I had the authority and the test result; I did not have popularity. The next day the quality head backed me and the batch was rejected at the plant. I learnt that the decision is easier if you tell people the reason while you are taking it, not after.

तुमच्या जिल्ह्याची ओळख काय आहे आणि तिथली सर्वात मोठी समस्या कोणती?

मी लातूर जिल्ह्यातील आहे. लातूर डाळ मिल, शिक्षणाचा लातूर पॅटर्न आणि 2016 च्या पाण्याच्या रेल्वेसाठी ओळखला जातो. सर्वात मोठी समस्या भूजल आहे. साठ हजारांहून जास्त बोअरवेल आणि अवर्षणप्रवण भागात उसाची लागवड यामुळे दरवर्षी पाण्याची पातळी खाली जाते. उपजिल्हाधिकारी म्हणून मी भूजल कायद्याखाली विहीर नोंदणी सक्तीची करेन, सर्वात वाईट वीस गावांत जलयुक्त शिवाराची कामे प्राधान्याने घेईन आणि गावनिहाय पाणीपातळीची आकडेवारी दर तीन महिन्यांनी प्रसिद्ध करेन.

District identity, one problem, three actions. Keep the Marathi plain; the board is listening for clarity, not literary vocabulary.

शेतकरी आत्महत्या थांबवण्यासाठी एक अधिकारी म्हणून तुम्ही काय कराल?

आत्महत्येमागे कर्ज, पीक अपयश आणि एकटेपणा ही तीन कारणे असतात. मी तहसील पातळीवर तीन गोष्टी करेन. पहिली, पीकविमा आणि कर्जमाफीचे दावे प्रलंबित का आहेत याची गावनिहाय यादी काढून बँकांसोबत दर पंधरवड्याला आढावा. दुसरी, सावकारी कायद्याखाली बेकायदा सावकारांवर कारवाई, कारण बँकेपेक्षा सावकाराचे कर्ज जास्त जीवघेणे असते. तिसरी, आशा सेविकांमार्फत मानसिक आरोग्य तपासणी, जशी यवतमाळमध्ये प्रेरणा प्रकल्पात झाली. आकडे कमी होण्यासाठी तीन वर्षे लागतील, पण सुरुवात माहितीपासून होते.

शिवाजी महाराजांच्या प्रशासनातून आजच्या अधिकाऱ्याने काय शिकावे?

तीन गोष्टी. पहिली, अष्टप्रधान मंडळ म्हणजे जबाबदारीची स्पष्ट विभागणी, आजच्या भाषेत प्रत्येक विभागाचा एक जबाबदार अधिकारी. दुसरी, रयतेच्या भाजीच्या देठालाही हात लावू नका हे आज्ञापत्र, म्हणजे प्रशासनाने सामान्य माणसाचे नुकसान करू नये. तिसरी, वतनदारी मोडून पगारी अधिकारी नेमणे, म्हणजे पदाची नाही तर कामाची निष्ठा. आज एखाद्या तहसीलदाराने तलाठ्याकडून जमिनीची नोंद वेळेत झाली की नाही हे तपासणे, हे त्याच तत्त्वाचे रूप आहे.

मराठवाड्याचा अनुशेष म्हणजे काय आणि तो कसा भरून निघेल?

अनुशेष म्हणजे सिंचन, रस्ते, आरोग्य आणि शिक्षणात उर्वरित महाराष्ट्राच्या तुलनेत मराठवाड्यात राहिलेली तूट. 1984 च्या दांडेकर समितीने ती मोजली आणि 1994 मध्ये वैधानिक विकास मंडळे आली. सिंचनाचा अनुशेष अजूनही सर्वात मोठा आहे कारण कृष्णा खोऱ्यातील पाणी मराठवाड्यापर्यंत आलेले नाही. तो भरायचा असेल तर जायकवाडीत वरच्या धरणांतून समन्यायी पाणी सोडणे, सूक्ष्म सिंचन आणि औरंगाबाद-जालना औद्योगिक पट्ट्यात रोजगार, हे तीन मार्ग आहेत. फक्त निधी वाटप करून अनुशेष भरत नाही, कामे पूर्ण होणे महत्त्वाचे.

तुमची पहिली पसंती उपजिल्हाधिकारी का आहे, पोलीस उपअधीक्षक का नाही?

माझा स्वभाव नियोजनाचा आहे. एल अँड टीमध्ये मला रात्रपाळीपेक्षा वेळापत्रकाच्या बैठकीत जास्त आनंद मिळायचा. उपजिल्हाधिकाऱ्याचे काम, जमीन, महसूल, निवडणूक, आपत्ती व्यवस्थापन, हे त्या स्वभावाला शोभते. पोलीस सेवेबद्दल मला आदर आहे आणि गरज पडल्यास मी तिथेही काम करेन, पण माझा चुलत भाऊ नांदेडमध्ये पीएसआय आहे आणि त्याच्याकडून मला माहीत आहे की त्या कामाला संघर्षाचा स्वभाव लागतो, जो मला घडवावा लागेल, तो जन्मजात नाही.