IMPHAL, February 13: The Joint Students Coordinating Committee (JSCC) has demanded the Manipur Public Service Commission (MPSC) to modify the mandatory eligibility condition for the Manipur Civil Service Combined Competitive (preliminary) Examination so that it would be more local candidate centric and to withhold the exam until the criteria is appended.
Observing that the condition that candidates of the exam must be a citizen of India has opened the exam to all citizens of the country, the committee has set February 20 as deadline for the commission to meet its demand.
Speaking to media persons at the office of the Students’ Union of Kangleipak, JSCC convenor Jayenta Kumar Khuman said that the MPSC has opened the exam to all citizens of India.
However, unlike in the past since this year only online applications are invited for the February 28 exam, there has been a major increase in the number of applications from non-domiciles from outside the State from the previous years.
The eligibility condition of the MPSC is unlike those prescribed by the public service commissions of other North Eastern States, he said.
The MPSC should not be like the UPSC which allows every citizen of the country to sit for exams conducted by it, he said.
He said the MPSC should give more importance to local candidates.
Kumar said the JSCC has been demanding to reform the eligibility conditions and enact some eligibility conditions like Nagaland and Mizoram.
He pointed out that the Mizoram Public Service Commission (MPSC) prescribed eligibility conditions mention that candidates having “working knowledge of Mizo language as compulsory” while the Nagaland Public Service Commission (NPSC) prescribed criteria lays that 80 percent of the vacancies are reserved for candidates belonging to any Naga Tribe, Kuki, Garo, Mikir, Kachari, provided such persons are Indigenous inhabitant of the State of Nagaland.”
Jayenta Kumar warned that “If the concerned authority fails to translate their demands within the set deadline, the students committee will boycott the examination and it will be compelled to take up strong forms of agitations.”
The MPSC should be held responsible for any untoward incident occurring during the agitations that follow, he warned.
Meanwhile, the JAC formed in demand of including residential certificate in the recruitment rules of the State of Manipur has submitted a memorandum to the chairman of the MPSC demanding inclusion of “Domicile of Manipur” as mandatory eligibility criteria of the exams conducted by the commission.
It has further demanded the MPSC to release a corrigendum regarding the inclusion of the mandatory eligibility criteria on or before February 18.
Other demands of the JAC for inclusion in the criteria are that aspirants must be able to read, write and speak Manipuri (languages) or a proficiency test of any of the tribal dialects (languages) of Manipur as recognised by the BOSEM and that aspirants should be holders of local employment exchange card (Manipur) or enrolled in the voters list of Manipur.
They also demanded to put hold the said examination until the said criteria are included in the eligibility condition.
“…able read, write and speak Manipuri (languages) or a proficiency test of any
of the tribal dialects (languages) of Manipur as recognised by the BOSEM (sic)”. I believe there are many who speak Manipuri amongst Manipuri going school outside, but cannot read or write. Will we exclude them? There are Manipuris whose language might not have been included under BOSEM. Why not their language included without giving preference to any other language? Better play fair game for all Manipuris.