Ghost of 1994 continues to haunt MPSC: Now nail the guilty
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: October 19 2019 -

The decision of the High Court of Manipur to quash the controversy dogged Manipur Civil Service Combined Competitive Examination, 2016 (MCSCCE) should underline the point that nothing is right with the highest recruiting body of the State.

The very decision that the examination be quashed means that now MCS, MPS, MFS and allied services officers who have been in service for more than two years now, will be rendered jobless, all thanks to an inept, lethargic, and CORRUPT Manipur Public Service Commission.

Not the first time that the examination to recruit MCS and MPS officers has been quashed and if things do not improve this will not be the last either.

A reflection of the rot that has seeped into anything that has got to do with the Government. The examination was conducted in 2016 and not long after came the litigations filed by a group of candidates, christened Group of Aspirants.

Most probably this is not an exception and the earlier ones or examinations conducted by the MPSC could well have been a matter of the case not taken to the end with the petitioners getting tired and worn out.

But justice will come, however delayed it may seem and the verdict of the High Court of Manipur, underlines this point.

As stated earlier, this is not the first time that the High Court has quashed the written examination conducted by the MPSC.

Rewind to 1994 and one can still recall those days when the then Imphal Bench of Gauhati High Court quashed the examination, with then Justice Sema ruling that a drop of poison poisons the whole glass of milk.

This was after a random rechecking of answer papers revealed rampant cases of mark manipulations of some candidates.

Controversy has always dogged the MPSC whenever recruitment examination is conducted to induct MCS, MPS, MFS and other allied services officers in the State Government.

What makes the 2019 judgment of the High Court of Manipur all that more significant is the directive given to the CBI to investigate the case and nail all those responsible for the fiasco that the examination has turned out to be.

This is perhaps the first time that the CBI has been asked to probe cases of malpractices concerning competitive examinations conducted by the MPSC and this is a welcome move.

Probe the case, nail the guilty and ring out the message that no one has the right to mess around with the future of young students who burnt the midnight oil preparing for the examination.

On the other hand, one can also sympathise with those candidates who passed the examination honestly and who are now serving as officers.

Many of them could have even got married and are now may be fathers and mothers and to be rendered jobless due to some inept, inefficient and corrupt officials is sickening, but this is how the wheel of justice turns.

Now that the said examination has been quashed, let the Government also study the possibility of disbanding MPSC for the time being and hand over the job of conducting the examination to a Central body, maybe the Staff Selection Commission.

Citing an example to highlight the sense of shame that one feels.