Interview row: Nepotism charge against magistrate

SHILLONG: The member secretary of the District Selection Committee in West Garo Hills and additional district magistrate, Annie Valentina D Shira, is in the eye of a storm for presiding over the recent recruitment examinations to government vacancies in which her two adult children made it to the top ten list.
The declaration of the results last week revealed Shira’s son Achilles Tangrik getting the second position while her daughter Francesca Tigana was placed in the fourth position after completion of the personal interview for the posts of lower division assistants (LDAs).
The results have created a major controversy as allegations begin to crop up about one of the top ranker children of the magistrate allegedly failing to even secure the minimum marks for the typing speed test to the same post.
Aggrieved candidates who did not make it to the final list are contemplating to move the courts over the results and Garo Hills-based organisations, including GSU, AYC and FKJGP, have condemned the manner in which the lady official was allowed to remain as the DSC secretary overseeing the conduct of examinations despite her own children appearing for the vacant positions.
“How can there be a clean and fair conduct of exams when the head of the family is the DSC secretary and her children are the applicants to the vacant posts. She should have relinquished her position when her children applied for the exams,” complain some of the aggrieved candidates who appeared for the same examination.
Allegations of a leak of the question papers and the interview have been leveled against the DSC by some of the job applicants.
When contacted by The Shillong Times, West Garo Hills DC Pravin Bakshi said that Shira had given an explanation about the issue which is being forwarded to the Personnel Department.