MP offers to resign from Rajya Sabha if wife found guilty
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Sep 26: In what can be described as a third-party rebuttal to the KSU allegations against MPSC, Lok Sabha member Wanwei Roy Kharlukhi has offered to resign if any credible probe establishes any charge of irregularities involving his wife and MPSC member, Corina Lyngdoh.
Significantly, there has been no reaction from MPSC so far.
On Thursday, Kharlukhi who belongs to the NPP, wrote to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma demanding an independent judicial inquiry into alleged irregularities in the conduct of the ongoing Meghalaya Civil Services (preliminary) examinations.
The Rajya Sabha MP has written this letter to the CM a day after the KSU petitioned Governor Chandrashekhar H Vijayashankar to initiate an inquiry against officials of the MPSC.
In his letter to the chief minister, Kharlukhi said, “I would like to draw to your kind attention that, of late, it has come out in the news about irregularities in the Meghalaya Public Service Commission. Mrs Corina Lyngdoh, who is one of the members in the Commission, is my wife and I feel that this has tarnished the image of my family. So to set the record right I would request the government to go for an independent inquiry on this issue.”
“I requested the CM that the independent probe should be completed within one month,” Kharlukhi told reporters, explaining that the reason behind his interest in the issue is that his wife is a member of the MPSC.
“If the judicial inquiry finds my wife guilty, I will step down as the Rajya Sabha MP,” he asserted.
According to him, the MPSC will have to abide by the Supreme Court ruling where the percentage of weightage to the written test is fixed at 87.5 while the remaining 12.5 per cent is awarded for the oral test (personal interview).
“I do not think any commission in the country will dare to go against the ruling of the apex court,” the Rajya Sabha member said.
He lamented that the issue has been generalised.
“People should point out to those who are responsible for the irregularities. The image of my family has been tarnished since my wife is there,” he said while also informing that his wife will retire as member of the commission next month.
Kharlukhi also claimed that majority of the people topping the MCS examination during the tenure of his wife from 2018 onwards are all deserving people.
“One of the recent toppers of the MCS examinations was a graduate from IIT Kharagpur. Many people from the rural areas who are brilliant and deserving are also getting through,” Kharlukhi stated, dismissing allegations about nepotism.
In a letter submitted to the Governor on Wednesday, the KSU urged him to order a probe to cover the irregularities and to uphold the Commission’s integrity and ensure that the recruitment is fair and transparent.
Seeking the Governor’s intervention, the KSU said the MPSC has often faced the charges of being corrupt and indulging in nepotism.
The union lamented that despite the alleged irregularities, the wrongdoers were never punished.
“These issues have cropped up because the Commission is favouring candidates coming from influential segments of the society. There are also various other irregularities in the Commission in regards to the delay in declaring the results for various other posts, deviations from the recruitment rules prescribed by specific department service rules to the posts of typist and head of departments and other irregularities,” the KSU said in their letter.