Shillong, Aug 8: Peeved at the Meghalaya Public Service Commission’s (MPSC) adamant attitude to not release the marks of all the candidates appearing for the MCS (prelims) exams to maintain transparency in the recruitment process, the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) on Thursday took their protest a notch higher by burning the effigy of MPSC here.

The effigy, which had “The MPSC crook”, “corruption”, “nepotism” and a picture showing the giving and taking of money on it, was burnt in front of the MPSC office during a sit-in-demonstration staged by the KSU for the second time in a span of one week.

A KSU member also kicked against the effigy before it was set ablaze, a symbolic gesture as hitting the alleged corruption in MPSC.

Activists shouting slogans also display placards which read: “MSPC – Meghalaya Politician Servant Commission”, “We demand transparency”, “A scam in the MCS exam today is a scam for our future generation”, “Conditions of Meghalaya are in shambles because most people in position entered Back Door, hence are too dumb to bring about positive changes” and “MPSC is a hub for converging Aspirations into Depressions”, among others.

This came after MPSC had issued a public notice on August 6, seeking the general consent of candidates of the MCS (Preliminary) Examination for disclosure of their marks in public domain.

Earlier to this, the MPSC had cited the inability to disclose the marks due to a petition filed by some candidates objecting to the demand to disclose their marks as it will be an infringement of their rights to privacy.

Speaking to reporters, KSU chief Lambokstarwell Marngar termed the alleged excuses made by the MPSC as an attempt to hide something. “If there is really transparency in the functioning of the MPSC, then the question arises why there are frequent changes in the statements of the commission,” Marngar said while referring to the MPSC not keeping its assurance made to the union to disclose the marks by coming up with questionable public notices.

“We also fail to understand what kind of privacy they are talking about. When the majority of the MCS candidates have met the KSU and have expressed the need to ensure transparency in the recruitment by disclosing their marks, then why is the MPSC trying to hide the same?” he asked.

He further questioned, “Surprisingly, the MPSC came up with another public notice in the guise of seeking the general consent of the candidates for disclosure of their marks in public domain. If there is really transparency, then why MPSC is hesitant or buying time to disclose the marks.”

Marngar said the KSU on April 5, 2018 met the state government and had made it clear that recruitment done at the level of the MPSC and DSCs should be fully transparent.

“This is because the majority of the youth, who are government job aspirants, have expressed total lack of faith in the MPSC and DSC recruitment process as they alleged that the posts already have people before the advertisements were published or people are paying money to get appointments etc.”

Further, the KSU chief said that the union will continue to protest till the MPSC is ready to comply with its demands to ensure transparency and end nepotism and favouritism in the recruitment by the commission.

“We don’t want the MPSC to be a place for collecting money or a place to please ministers, politicians or bureaucrats. We demand total transparency in the functioning of the MPSC as we cannot allow such a body to play with the future of job aspirants,” he said.

According to him, the actions by the MPSC by deciding to come up with an additional list of 62 candidates in the pretext of allegedly setting up of wrong questions give room for suspicion that there is lack of transparency in the entire recruitment process.

“Otherwise, why should they hide (the marks) if there is transparency. Therefore, we highly demand that the recruitment be based on merits and not be based on somebody bribing somebody,” he stated.

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