Why is the Meghalaya Public Service Commission (MPSC) allowed to be run by a rag-tag group of non-professionals, mostly retired government officials whose knowledge is outdated? This is a Commission that is mandated to select the best brains to serve a public cause and not the government of the day. For too long the MPSC has chosen to dispel public allegations of nepotism, inefficiency, lack of transparency etc., by never acknowledging its incompetencies – such as question paper setting for certain professional exams that are rife with errors. It may not be wrong to state that the MPSC has lost the confidence of young professionals appearing for the exams advertised by the Commission from time to time.
As a constitutional body the MPSC should have instilled confidence in young job seekers by being seen as the cornerstone of merit-based recruitment in the state civil services. But repeated allegations that those well connected always make it to the merit list have debased this institution and cancelled the most important aspect of what a recruitment agency should be doing which is to maintain neutrality and fairness in the selection process for various government positions. Does a single Chairperson stand out for having conducted a free and fair recruitment process during their tenure? Or have political pressures and compulsions been the hallmark of the Commission? If the MPSC were truly fair and transparent in its selection process Meghalaya would, over the decades have seen state civil servants with outstanding performance and commitment to meet the needs of people at the grassroots and not ensconced in their ivory towers pushing files without examining if the work they do even impacts the so-called “beneficiaries” of the multifarious schemes they are supposed to implement.
Looking at the quality of road construction in Meghalaya, any visitor would wonder why in Shillong city, the state capital roads should be laden with potholes and riding on them is equivalent to riding on horseback and dangerous for pregnant women and those with back problems. A shining (?) example is the road in Nongrim Hills which goes to the office of the Meghalaya Basin Management Authority (MBMA). Obviously, the PWD minister has never visited that office because he does not need to. But that has become an arterial road after the Nongrim Hills Dorbar for inexplicable reasons decided to convert the road adjacent to the office of the North Eastern Council (NEC) into a one-way route, obviously to allow for roadside parking alongside the NEC. If engineers of the Public Works Department (PWD) were to be marked on the basis of the roads which they certified to have been completed and which in six months are already pot-holed, they would all have failed the test of integrity, efficiency and professional competence. But so far no PWD engineer has ever been penalised for constructing poor quality roads or buildings and certifying them to have complied with all the norms stated in the compliance certificate given to the contractors. Should the MPSC not be held accountable for selecting such engineers?
