MPSC Row: Fate of many youths in dire straits due to erroneous system
Source: IT News

Imphal, October 16 2019: With the case to the alleged irregularities in the selection of candidates being reserved by the Manipur High Court, fate of many youths are in dire straits due to the erroneous system which went unnoticed until 42 MPSC aspirants petitioned to the High Court seeking justice.

Any ruling of the double bench of the Manipur High Court will shock either of the two parties and it would have been difficult times for Justice Nobin and Justice Shimray.

"To be or not to be" the famous quote from Shakespeare's play would have occupied the mind of the two justice.

Well, the Manipur Public Service Commission (MPSC) had conducted the MCSCCE 2016 Examination for selection to 62 posts of MCS, MPS, SDC, EO.

Manipur Public Service Commission (MPSC) Building :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

These said posts are the top posts in state that commands huge respect and corresponding accountability.

It is unfortunate that so many controversies have come up in this examination .The findings of the enquiry committee constituted by the order of the Manipur High Court is in public domain and it has concluded that there were indeed irregularities in the conduct of the examination.

Huge totaling errors, unevaluated answers, marks being awarded on the front table but not inside the respective answers, marks awarded inside the answer scripts but not on the tabulation column, over attempt questions being awarded marks, absence of examiner's signature, invigilator's signature, supervisor's signature in many answer scripts, no record of handling over of answer scripts to examiners, different signature of same examiner.

Alterations of marks without initials, and in some cases by a totally different signature; tabulation sheet found signing only by the Chairman and no one else; are some of the irregularities mentioned in the enquiry report.

In addition to these, there was no Head Examiner, no evaluation guidelines, and no Model answer paper as per RTI information.

Furthermore as per the submission of MPSC in the High Court, some answer scripts were taken by the then Secretary who knew the code numbers for evaluation outside Manipur.

Upon query whether doing so won't disclose the confidentiality; MPSC was not able to produce any document /rule where it was permitted to do so by the Secretary who already knew the code number.

It was also confirmed that for Public Administration the evaluation got over only on 03/09/2016 and the final result was declared the very next day in the morning on 04/09/2016.Some examiners evaluated more than 75+ answer scripts in a day.

Above all this, another point worth noting is that the then Chairman was due to retire on 7th November, 2017.Without going into the merits of the allegations, the fact that such illegalities and irregularities took place in the conduct of such a reputed examination call for a serious introspection to find out if there was more than what meet the eyes.

MPSC has indeed failed in performing its constitutional duties and accountability should be fixed.

Now that final judgment is expected shortly, all eyes are now on Judiciary as to what decision it will deliver.

No doubt the case and the judgment will remain a watershed moment in generations to come and everyone starting from youth to old, in unison, is expecting the judgment to help in rooting out corruption and transform Manipur.