Manipur Civil Service, qualification ?

Free Thinker *

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

The first qualification to become an eligible candidate for the prestigious Manipur Civil Service exam is to have a proof of citizenship of this country. In other words every Indian citizen can apply for this service.

Outsiders/foreigners might be applying by producing a valid citizenship document like the passport, AADHAAR card or voter ID or PAN card or driving license or SC/ST/OBC Certificate or a domicile certificate issued by the competent authority on payment basis.

Can we change this fluid position? Difficult, reason being the verification of such documents will be done again on payment basis. Then who will validate the verification ?

Knowing of local language must be made mandatory

Those who apply for this service (whether he or she or transgender) ought to know the local language spoken in the State. At the time of applying for the job if they don’t know any of the local languages they should give an undertaking saying that they will learn a local language within 6 to 12 months of their appointment. As a matter of fact knowing the local language is so important for civil servants or police officers as they have to interact with the natives.

Even the IAS or IPS officers have to learn the local language in their respective cadres. For instance a Tamilian has to learn Hindi if he belongs to the Bihar cadre. At the same time a Bihari posted in Tamil Nadu must know Tamil.

The IAS officers from northeast belonging to UP cadre have to learn Hindi. Why should we be so fussy about it rather we must be happy about it because one scientific research has proven that knowing multiple languages can make your brain function better than those who know only one or two languages.

Any degree holder may apply but…

Any degree holder can apply for writing the Manipur Civil Service examination. A person who is a graduate in Pali/Pakrit literature or one who has done mobile repairing course or somebody who has completed a full degree course in drawing or singing or anyone who has finished a three years degree course in printing or somebody who has done graduation in ticketing or anybody who acquires a degree by any means from a recognized University or institute may confidently apply. There is no discrimination in this regard. But somebody who had a third degree from a police station may not apply. That degree may be useful for some other services.

As far as marks are concerned there is no bar. Even a 33 percenter can top this exam while a 100 percenter may come at the bottom. Your performance in your graduation has nothing to do with this competition. It is an all-round competition. I repeat, it is an all-round competition. Your good performance in the exam may not guarantee success. Concerned authority firmly believes in the overall personality, performance and parental participation etc. In a way this exam is more competitive than the IAS exam conducted by the UPSC.

Age eligibility of the candidates

A person who has attained the age of 21 can sit for this exam. The upper age limit is extendable only up to 59 as the retirement age is 60. To be very frank, it all depends on the age proof certificates you are going to produce, for instance, birth certificate, matriculation certificate, degree certificate etc. The number of attempts is again unlimited as long as you are not caught. Perfect records are not available.

In addition there were some fire, flood and earthquake incidents to do the needful.

Wealthy shall be prefered to

Perhaps it is an undeclared policy to select wealthy candidates and this policy is vigorously practiced. Normally preferences are given to those candidates who come from affluent families. The fundamental reason to adopt such a policy is to curb corruption in the State.

The policy framers firmly believe that children from rich background are less corrupt because they have already enjoyed a comfortable life, they have enough money and property and so they hardly indulge in corrupt practices. I don’t buy this funny argument as the findings are on the contrary. Though this policy was perversely decided by the experts in the field of bribery and malpractices; it is high time to dismantle it, because the trend has been otherwise.

Physical and mental fitness indispensible

This is again an extremely important qualification though not mentioned openly. Ours is a land of bandhs, strikes, blockades, public- curfew, rallies etc. and therefore there will be too much of mental and physical stress on the officers. One has to be mentally and physically very robust.

The recruiting agency must be screening out surreptitiously the feeble, fragile and frail candidates. You see, there will be instances of abduction, kidnapping, loots, robbery, extortion etc. Moreover more than 30 outfits are operating in various areas of the State. Frankly speaking in such an environment outsiders may not be able to maneuver and deliver even if they are selected as MCS or MPS officers, whereas the locals can.

Outsiders may even think that situations are out of control but the localites may not. I am not bias in favor of the local candidates but I am telling you the truth.

STILL I SAY, LET’S NOT BE PAROCHIAL, INSTEAD LET’S TRY TO HAVE A CLEAN EXAM!