Shillong: The results of the Junior Meghalaya Police Service Officer (Home) Police Department, interviews for which were conducted by the Meghalaya Public Service Commission (MPSC) on December 15-17, were declared on Friday.
Out of 34 candidates who have made the cut, nineteen are from the Khasi-Jaintia category, fourteen from the Garo and one from Rabha community.
Of the 34 who have passed the MPS examination this year, five are women candidates.
Sources from the MPSC said the interviews this time were conducted a little differently. The expert member from the Home (Police) Department who is part of the interview panel is normally a serving police officer. The DGP or his nominee is usually the expert member of the interview panel.
This time the MPSC nominated retired DGP of Meghalaya SB Kakati as an expert member of the panel and no reasons were given by the Commission for this deviation. They said this has never happened since the inception of the MPSC.
The question papers this time were set by Gauhati University which is also a deviation from past practice. Whether this is intended to bring greater objectivity or would lend itself to greater manipulation is uncertain the sources said but they felt that if question papers were set locally it might have been more difficult to manipulate.
Sources also said that on December 18, the interview panel sat from 11 am to 10 pm to finalise the list of successful candidates.
MPSC sources say that it should not have taken so much time if the results had been fair and square. The interview panel would only have had to add the marks secured in the personal interview to those that the candidates had secured in their prelims and written exams.
That so much time was spent to bring out the final results shows that all is not well, they claim.