Shillong, Aug 8: Having dragged its feet on the demand by candidates to make their marks public for over a week, pushing one alibi after another, the Meghalaya Public Service Commission (MPSC) has finally given in and announced that marks of all the candidates will be published within 24 hours.
This turnabout has come after a sustained protest by the Khasi Students Union that took the side of the aggrieved students after it was revealed that the Commission had included additional candidates in the cut off category for the main exams and had refused to make the marks public citing a request by six candidates, one of whom was the daughter of the Commission’s Secretary.
The assurance was made by the Chairman of MPSC during a meeting with the leaders of the KSU on Wednesday evening.
The minutes of the meeting signed by both the parties said that the MSPC has agreed to publish the marks of all the candidates, who have appeared in the MCS (Prelims) Examination within 24 hours.
The commission has also assured to publish the answer keys including the incorrect and corrected answer keys and the three wrong questions along with the correct answers within 24 hours.
Answer keys (Prelims) to publish including the incorrect and the corrected answer keys within 24 hours.
According to the minutes of the meeting, the KSU has also demanded that personal interview for the post of Meghalaya Police Service should be according to the original advertisement 2019 where the ratio is 1:2.5 and not according to the new Office Memorandum which changes the ratio to 1:1.5.
“The chairman has sought time in regard to this as to discuss it in the meeting with the other members,” it said.
Further the minutes of the meeting said, “Meanwhile, the personal interview which was scheduled to be held on August 20 and 21, 2024 should be cancelled until further notice. Roll numbers should be same from the Prelims till Personal interview for Meghalaya Civil Service examination. Notification dated August 6, 2024 to be cancelled and the marks to be display in public domain.”
The meeting between the agitating Khasi Students Union and the Commission took place on a day protestors had set ablaze an effigy of the MPSC, outside its main office in Shillong, accusing it of corruption and nepotism.
Protestors have been striking outside the MPSC office for over a week demanding transparency.
On Thursday, angry protestors placed an effigy of the MPSC, replacing the words Meghalaya Public Service commission with Meghalaya Politician Servant Commission (MPSC), that was also pasted with additional words “crook”, “corrupt” and “Nepotism” before setting it on fire.
Student activists also raised placards that read: “MSPC – Meghalaya Politician Servant Commission”, “We demand transparency”, “A scam in the MCS exam today is a scam for our future generation”.
Speaking to reporters, KSU chief Lambokstarwell Marngar termed the alleged excuses made by the MPSC as an attempt to hide something.
“If there is really transparency in the functioning of the MPSC, then the question arises why there are frequent changes in the statements of the commission,” Marngar said while referring to the MPSC not keeping its assurance made to the union to disclose the marks by coming up with questionable public notices.
“We also fail to understand what kind of privacy they are talking about. When the majority of the MCS candidates have met the KSU and have expressed the need to ensure transparency in the recruitment by disclosing their marks, then why is the MPSC trying to hide the same?” he asked.
He added, “Surprisingly, the MPSC came up with another public notice in the guise of seeking the general consent of the candidates for disclosure of their marks in public domain. If there is really transparency, then why MPSC is hesitant or buying time to disclose the marks.”
Marngar said that the KSU on April 5, 2018 met the state government and had made it clear that recruitment done at the level of the MPSC and DSCs should be fully transparent.
“This is because the majority of the youth, who are government job aspirants, have expressed total lack of faith in the MPSC and DSC recruitment process as they alleged that the posts already have people before the advertisements were published or people are paying money to get appointments etc.”
Further, the KSU chief said that the union will continue to protest till the MPSC is ready to comply with its demands to ensure transparency and end nepotism and favouritism in the recruitment by the commission.
“We don’t want the MPSC to be a place for collecting money or a place to please ministers, politicians or bureaucrats. We demand total transparency in the functioning of the MPSC as we cannot allow such a body to play with the future of job aspirants,” he said.
According to him, the actions by the MPSC by deciding to come up with an additional list of 62 candidates in the pretext of allegedly setting up of wrong questions give room for suspicion that there is total lack of transparency in the entire recruitment process.
“Otherwise, why should they hide (the marks) if there is transparency. Therefore, we highly demand that the recruitment be based on merits and not be based on somebody bribing somebody,” he stated.
