Shillong, Aug 1: Activists of the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) on Thursday burnt the reply of the Meghalaya Public Service Commission (MPSC) during a sit-in-demonstration held in the Commission’s premises as a mark of protest against its failure to address the irregularities and demand for transparency in the recruitment of MCS, MPS and statistical officers in the Animal Husbandry & Veterinary department.

This came after the 48-hour ultimatum served to the MPSC to publish the marks of candidates appearing for the Meghalaya Civil Service (Prelims) Examination, to clarify on the less number of candidates appearing for Meghalaya Police Service (MPS) selected for personal interview and the appointment of two statistical officers instead of one as per advertisement published in 2019- expired.

Activists shouting slogans “Chairman MPSC step down, step down” also displayed placards which read: “MPSC is a house of blunders and misappropriations with no accountability. You are a mockery of the public service commission”, “MSPC is a hub of converting aspirations to desperations” and “KSU will take a stand to ensure that nepotism and favouritism shall end.”

Chairman of the KSU Employment Monitoring Cell Reuben Najiar announced that the Union outrightly rejects the justifications as he joined the other leaders and members of the union in tearing and burning the copies of the MPSC’s reply.

“We reject this reply of the MPSC. In fact, after going through the reply of the MPSC, we are convinced that there are irregularities in the job recruitment. Therefore, we will not allow the MPSC to treat the issue casually in an attempt to mislead the public. We will continue to stage this sit-in-demonstration till MPSC meets all our demands,” he said.

The delegation of the KSU also met the chairman of the MPSC on his invitation to further stressed on demand for transparency in the job recruitment.

After the meeting, Najiar said, “During our meeting with him (MPSC chairman), we have demanded the commission to immediately publish the marks of all the candidates appearing for the MCS (Prelims) Exam. In this regard, the MPSC has agreed to our demand and assured us that the marks will be published today evening.”

It may be mentioned that eyebrows were raised after the MPSC had declared an additional list of 62 candidates, who were declared to be successful for the mains examination to be held in September.

“We demand that there should be no kind of discrepancies or irregularities involved in the conduct of the MCS examination,” Najiar reiterated to the chairman, MPSC.

In regards to the MPS examination, the KSU leader said that the union has questioned the decision of the MPSC to deviate from the advertisement to follow the ratio of 1:2.5 while calling candidates to appear for the personal interview.

“They (Commission) have called very less number of candidates (around 27 of them) for the personal interview instead of not less than 42 or 43 as per ratio of 1:2.5,” he said while adding “To this, the MPSC chairman has sought time as they need to consult the matter with their legal counsel before getting back to the union. However, we stressed that they should follow what has been advertised and not deviate from the normal process.”

Najiar also informed, “With regards to the statistical officer posts, the union has questioned the decision of the Commission to declare the result for two people when the actual advertisement was for one post that too for only Khasi-Jaintia category. To that, the MPSC has claimed that they made a clerical error at that point of time and that from the department there was a requisition letter for two posts. They have shown us the letter and other corrigendum that was involved in it. However, we pointed out that such kind of clerical error should not happen. If such kind of clerical error is allowed, how will we believe you.”

Asserting the need to reform the MPSC, the KSU leader said, “If MPSC is what it is right now, such incidents will happen time and again.”

He informed that the union has decided to meet the state government in the coming days to submit its proposal to reform the MPSC.

Highlighting few suggestions of the union, Najiar said, “We don’t want any more political appointees in the MPSC. If there are political appointees also, the eligibility of those appointees should be made at the highest level as they are looking after the commission, which looks into the career of aspiring students.”

“Also, we want cameras on interviews for Group-A post and for Group B, C onwards there should be no personal interviews but the candidates should be recruited based on merits. Other things including time frame from the date of advertisement till recruitment, we demand that it should be completed within one year time,” he stated further.

Read: Assam: School student’s body found inside hostel room in Tinsukia

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