SHILLONG: While Parliament is in a furore over the CSAT format for the UPSC examinations and Delhi is under siege by UPSC aspirants leading to the postponement of the UPSC exams, in Meghalaya a different kind of problem besets the candidates who have cleared the preliminary exams for the Meghalaya Police Service (MPS).
Candidates who have cleared the preliminary examinations for the Meghalaya Police Service, the result for which were declared in the third week of June 2014 are expected to appear for their main examinations from the first week of August this year, thereby leaving them with very little time to prepare for their Mains.
The MPSC has now issued a notification for the mains exam from the first week of August. There are four General studies papers, one English Paper and two optional subjects in the mains. How can any candidate prepare eight papers in a month’s time?
Candidates who have cleared their prelims said, “This is highly unjust on the part of MPSC. The UPSC gives at least 90 days for preparation for the mains exam after the prelims results are declared. Considering that the syllabus for the mains exams adopted by the MPSC is copied verbatim from the syllabi framed by the UPSC for the IAS mains exams this short notice for the mains exams has become a huge burden on us.”
Unfortunately the MPSC’s blind imitation of the UPSC stops there. When it comes to giving adequate time to candidates for preparing for the MPS mains exams, MPSC refuses to follow the UPSC time frame given to IAS aspirants to prepare for their mains. A parent speaking to this scribe said, “This is a completely arbitrary decision on the part of MPSC to deny adequate time for the candidates to prepare for the MPS mains exams. They are playing with the future of our youth. Or they may already have people they wish to appoint and are only making a show of conducting the exam.”
Inside information from MPSC says that one of the MPSC members is retiring soon. Hence the Chairperson wants that member to be part of the examination process. It is some sort of retirement gift to the member but at what cost?
Candidates who have cleared the MPS prelims exams are now worried about their mains exams since MPSC has given too short a time to prepare for the Mains. Even candidates who are otherwise above average have said that one month is too short a time to complete revision of all the seven papers for the mains.
The MPSC has been in the news for the wrong reasons all the time and this time no less. To conduct an exam on the basis of the retirement date of a member is the height of injustice many observe. When contacted, neither the MPSC chairperson LR Sangma nor the senior official with personnel department Rebecca Suchiang returned the calls.