Mesmerising Manipur Civil Services aspirants

Marchang Reimeingam *

Manipur Public Service Commission (MPSC) Building in Imphal in March 2013 :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

Manipur usually known as Sana Leibak (land of gold) is slowly eroding its charm. It is presently known by various issues pertaining to social, insurgency, underdevelopment, killing, corruption and unemployment among others. People, mostly from middle income group families, migrated outside Manipur to pursue and fulfil their educational aspirations. After completing their desired level of education many continue to find jobs at the place of migration especially in the cities where job opportunities are many.

There are migrants who specifically migrated for seeking job due to unemployment problems and lack of job opportunities in their state. Many graduates aspire for competitive government jobs. They spent huge money being supported by family members and time as they seek and wait for their aspired job.

Some studious and diligently hard working job seekers got their aspired job and sometime got a multiple jobs. However, some unfortunate ones continue to seek job perhaps until their age bar is reached and return to their home state jobless where unemployment problem is ever growing due to poor economic performances and government ineffectiveness.

In Manipur, unemployment problem is so widespread. Educated unemployment problem is more severe as they expect a formal organised job. Government job is considered as social status and prestige in a traditional family and society set-up.

An aspiration of a government job is a tradition as well as a social status for the unemployed. Data shows that unemployment problem is more severe in Manipur when compared with the national problem. For example, according to NSSO, during 2009/10 the educated unemployment rates (15+ years), measured by usual principal status, was 7.9 percent in Manipur against 5.6 percent of national average in rural areas; while, in urban areas it was 6.6 percent in Manipur against 5.4 percent in India. Most disturbingly, educated unemployment problem is more intense for females than males in both rural and urban areas which are a matter of concern that is required to be addressed promptly by the policy makers in Manipur as in the country.

Manipur is unable to generate adequate employment due to manifold constraints on economic, social and political aspects. Poor infrastructure, particularly road and power, is hindering in the movement of goods and services and in the establishment of industries. Manipur is relying mostly on service sector job which is often an inflated creating a problem to the exchequer. It, partly, resulted to irregularity in the payment of monthly salary to government employees. Presumably, new jobs recruitment is mostly from vacancies arising due to superannuation of employees and not due to newly generated jobs.

Recruitments for various government jobs in Manipur, by Manipur Public Service Commission (MPSC), are evident in recent past that would eventually reduce the problem of educated people. Such jobs are sought by both the persons of Manipur origin who studied in the state i.e. non-migrants and who studied outside the state i.e. migrants.

Often, persons who studied outside the state excel for such coveted jobs that imply a better educational system outside the state. The frequent strike affects the educational system in general and students’ performance in particular. The future of Manipur depends on the development of human capital that would be productive, efficient, effective, sensible and most importantly employable.

At such juncture, the sensitivity of those aspiring for the coveted government jobs in Manipur is needed to be addressed. MPSC, perhaps, is doing justice for all the aspirants for such jobs. However, sometime MPSC pretermit certain things in the recruitment process.

For example, the recent most Manipur Civil Services Combined Competitive (Preliminary) Examination results show some mesmerising situation for the candidates of the examination. In the press note of MPSC vide No.7/1/2016-MPSC (DR) dated 18th July 2016, Imphal, the Commission mentioned that “no rights whatever, of the OBC and SC candidates have been violated by the said cut off marks” further it noted that “if sufficient number of candidates belonging to SC, ST, OBC and DAP categories are not available on the general standards, the Commission may relax the standards” and most importantly it also highlighted that “the number of candidates to be admitted to the Main Examination will be 12-13 times the total approximate number of vacancies to be filled”.

The ratio between number of vacancies and number of candidates to be admitted to the Main Examination (at 1:12) at cut off of 171 marks is 82 posts : 984 candidates. Moreover, the Commission stated that “73 candidates with equal total marks have been added to it making the total to 1057”. This means only to these 73 candidates additional or grace marks were given equally to make the cut off of 171 marks across different social categories.

If so, then this has deprived the 984 candidates among all social categories in general and also deprived the 73 ST and DAP candidates whose cut off marks were relaxed in particular. It does not specify that additional mark have uniformly given to all 1057 candidates. Was adding additional marks to include within 171 cut off mark necessary?

The beneficiaries of marks added to 73 candidates are undoubtedly the General candidates; otherwise cut off mark could have been lowered. Also, the Commission relaxed the cut off marks for ST and DAP to 168 and 132 marks respectively resulting to 1130 number of candidates admitted to the Main Examination. It makes the ratio of 82:1130 (vacant posts : candidates admitted to the examination) that is close to 1:14 (actually 1:13.78) which is a violation of rules of MPSC specified “Section-I, Rule 2 of the MCSCC Examination Rules 2010” given in the press note that limits 1:12 or 1:13.

Now the major concern is keeping the cut off marks of 171 uniformly for candidates belonging to General, OBC(M), OBC (MP) and SC. This has created a problem in the ratio. The ratio for General is 1:4.11 (i.e. 44 posts:181 candidates), OBC(M) is 1:50.7 (i.e. 10 posts:507 candidates), OBC(MP) is 1:16 (i.e. 4 posts:64 candidates), and for SC is 1:35 (i.e. 2 posts:70 candidates).

“As per the Rule 13 of MCSCC Examination 2010, if sufficient number of candidates belonging to SC, ST, OBC and DAP categories are not available on the general standards, the Commission may relax the standards” noted in the press note. The ratio of OBC(M), OBC (MP) and SC far exceed the General category at same cut off marks. It denotes that OBCs and SC scored marks extremely greater than General candidates.

It implies that each candidate from OBCs and SC have less probability of getting through the Main Examination than the General category. The same logic applies for ST and DAP as their ratio is 1.13.41 (i.e. 22 posts:295 candidates) and 1:13 (i.e. 1 posts:13 candidates) respectively. Was it really needed to relaxed cut off marks to 168 for ST when the ratio is greater by more than three folds for ST (1:13.41) than General (1:4.11)? In short, intensity of competition for government jobs in Manipur is tougher for OBCs, SC, ST and even DAP than the General candidates. This necessitates restructuring the reservation policy in the state.