SHILLONG, Sep 25: The Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) on Wednesday urged Governor Chandrashekhar H Vijayashankar to set up an inquiry or initiate proceedings against the office-bearers of Meghalaya Public Service Commission (MPSC) for alleged irregularities in the conduct of ongoing Meghalaya Civil Services (preliminary) examinations.
In a letter submitted to Vijayashankar, KSU employment monitoring cell chairman Reuben Najiar said the probe should also cover other irregularities to uphold the Commission’s integrity and ensure that the recruitment is fair and transparent.
Seeking the Governor’s intervention, Najiar said the MPSC has often faced the charges of being corrupt and indulging in nepotism.
He lamented that despite the alleged irregularities, the wrongdoers were never punished. He said this was because they are shielded by politicians and the absence of an appropriate authority to look into such matters.
The MCS exam was conducted to fill up 35 posts which were advertised in 2019.
Najiar said following preliminary examination, 580 candidates were selected to write the mains examination but, surprisingly, another 62 candidates were added to the list in July this year, triggering outrage among people.
He said when the KSU sought a clarification, the MPSC had clarified that a petition was filed in January this year for submission of the answer key and the same was furnished on February 6. The Union pointed out that the MPSC does not have a criterion for allowing the candidates to challenge the answer key.
Najiar said based on the answer key, it was challenged that there were three wrong answers. He said the Commission admitted it, re-evaluated the answers and added another 62 candidates.
“All this was done in utmost secrecy and without following due procedures. After a series of arguments, agitations and protests in support of various demands made by the Union, the Commission was compelled to publish the marks of all the candidates,” the KSU leader said.
That the process was totally flawed was evident when the marks were published on August 9, he said.
“The methodology applied by the Commission for initial release of the answer key to only a particular candidate who filed a petition, the expert committee scrutinizing the alleged wrong answers in the answer key, the reassessment of marks thereof and the publication of second list is highly questionable. In fact, the steps and procedures followed by the MPSC were immoral, unjustified and baseless,” Najiar said.
He alleged that the distribution of marks was totally flawed.
“…if questions or answers are wrongly put by the conducting agency, instead of following the principles of natural justice of allotting marks to all the candidates for the wrong questions and answers or vice versa, the Commission followed a complex process which is totally senseless,” Najiar said.
According to him, after the reassessment of marks, it was seen that a candidate with less score than the cut-off mandated qualified for the main examination whereas a person with a high score was not eligible for the same.
“These issues have cropped up because MPSC is favouring candidates coming from influential segments of the society. There are also various other irregularities in the Commission in regards to the delay of declaring the results for various other posts, deviations from the recruitment rules prescribed by specific department service rules to the posts of typist in Head of Departments and other irregularities,” he added.
