SHILLONG, July 25: The state government has been urged to empower and strengthen the Meghalaya Public Service Commission (MPSC) by Adviser to the Chie Minister Lambor Malngiang, who has also emphasised that the MPSC needs to maintain its standards to be at par with its counterpart in other states.
In a letter addressed to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, Malngiang said, “We can probably even transform MPSC as a model for other public service commissions,” Malngiang, who is an independent MLA from Nongkrem, said.
He has also asked the government to constitute an independent committee to study and recommend reform necessary in the MPSC by bringing a proposed amendment, particularly to the Meghalaya Public Service Commission (Limitation of Functions) Regulations, 1972.
Stating that the State Public Service Commission was created as per the Constitution of India as laid down in Chapter-II of Part XIV, Malngiang said the provisions in the Constitution ensure the competence of the State Public Service Commission to deal with matters relating to the state services and enable the commissions to discharge their duties in a fair and impartial manner which is free from influence from any quarter.
“The recruitment to Grade IV Staff and posts of Driver, Mechanics, etc in the Meghalaya (Civil) Secretariat and the Heads of Departments has been made through the Departmental Selection Committee. The policy of recruitment made through the Departmental Selection Committee is not in line with the spirit of the Article 320 of the Constitution of India,” Malngiang observed.
He suggested that Section 3 of the ‘Meghalaya Public Service Commission (Limitation of Functions) Regulations 1972’ needs to be reviewed in its entirety, and those services which have been excluded from the purview of the MPSC as indicated in the aforementioned section of the regulation should be repealed and all Departmental Selection Committees constituted should be annulled.
Malngiang also suggested the exclusion of recruitment to some government services from the purview of the MPSC and setting up of separate Departmental Selection Committee(s) contravene the provisions of Article 320.
“As provided by the Article 320 of the Constitution of India, the Meghalaya Public Service Commission should be empowered to conduct examination for recruitment(s) on all classes of services/posts of Group- ‘A’, Group-‘B’, Group-‘C’ and Group-‘D’,” he added.
