BENGALURU: The Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has decided to conduct a common examination for recruitment to various posts, including First Division Assistant (FDA), Second Division Assistant (SDA) and other equivalent positions across departments requiring similar educational qualifications.Until now, this facility was available only through the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC).Following the state government’s recent decision to recognise KEA as a recruitment agency, the authority will conduct a common examination for equivalent posts across 33 departments to expedite the recruitment process, said KEA Executive Director H. Prasanna.Earlier, even when posts required similar educational qualifications, each department had to issue separate notifications, invite applications and conduct individual written examinations. This placed an additional financial burden on candidates.Under the new system, candidates can apply for posts across multiple departments through a single application and pay a single application fee. This will help reduce delays and inconvenience, he explained.KEA has developed software that automatically carries forward the details of candidates who had previously applied for posts such as Village Administrative Officer (VAO), Land Surveyor, Agriculture Officer and Assistant Agriculture Officer. Such candidates only need to log in and pay the required application fee to complete the submission process.Similar to the admission process for medical, engineering and other professional courses, KEA will prepare recruitment lists based on merit and applicable reservation categories.Just as students are allowed to indicate their preferred colleges and courses in order of priority during counselling, candidates will now have to list their preferred departments and posts in order of preference.Based on the marks obtained by candidates, posts will be allotted accordingly. Ultimately, each candidate will be allotted only one post, he explained.KEA is also considering conducting examinations twice a year for posts requiring similar educational qualifications.For instance, recruitment requests received from various departments between January and June could be grouped together, with a common application process and examination conducted for all the posts.Subsequently, recruitment requests received from departments during the remaining months of the year could be covered through another examination in December, followed by the publication of selection lists.