By Melarbor L Thabah
Over the years, legislators have been raising issues relating to the need in having a uniform protocol for job recruitment, its exam and subsequent result at the Assembly, in the print and media. Among these issues involves state recruiting agencies taking years to conduct the exams and declare the results from its initial date of advertisement to the posts concerned, lack of having cut off marks and written marks of failed and passed candidates exhibited after the ultimate final results of the posts concerned among others which is essential towards ensuring transparency in result declaration.
There is an urgent need towards ensuring uniformity and streamlining concerning government job recruitments by all recruiting establishments pan Meghalaya. A few of the suggestions that I can contribute towards this endeavour are as follows: –
(1). TIMELINE: A strict timeline must be “adhered” from the “Date of Advertisement” till the “Date of Final Result Declaration” of any post concerned for which this entire process must be completed within 365 days and no more. The earlier, the better the result.
(2) WRITTEN MARKS: The marks obtained by the failed candidates and passed candidates at the Written Exams must be “Compulsorily” displayed within the website of each and every recruiting state instrument but in separate locations for the failed candidates with their Roll No alongside the Written Marks in one location for failed candidates’ section and Passed candidates with their Roll No alongside Written Marks in another separate location for passed candidates’ section. These written exam marks for failed and passed candidates respectively are displayed after declaration of the finalised results in the website for the posts concerned as per UPSC and SSC norms.
(3) CUT OFF MARKS: The cut off marks must be displayed by all state recruiting instruments beneath the declaration of the finalised results for the posts concerned in which the caste is shown side by side with the marks for the caste -category concerned. The reason is that many youths want to know what the cut off marks for each caste category is since we have different cut off marks for different categories.
(4) STANDARDIZED ONLINE RESULT DISPLAY: The Delhi, Manipur and Arunachal State Public Service Commissions to name a few, the UPSC and the SSC follow a standardized transparent system for final declaration of the result for any post concerned by the Passed Candidates in serial order of merit bearing the Candidate’s Name with Gender, Roll Number, Category, Marks obtained at the Written Exam, Marks obtained at the Personal Interview and Tally Marks of both Written and Personal Interview must also now be “Compulsorily” displayed by all state recruiting instruments.
(5) PERSONAL INTERVIEW MARKS: It has been observed that central recruiting agencies follow the15% Marks for the Personal Interview out of the Total Marks allotted for the posts concerned. This norm is also followed by the state recruiting instruments of other states. Hence, all state recruitment instruments in our state should also follow this system to create uniformity.
(6) FUNCTIONAL VIDEO CAMERAS: For any post involving personal interview, functional video cameras must be present in all interview rooms during the interview process which may be required during litigation since there have been many previous allegations of nepotism, favouritism and bribery for which the High Court had to intervene in such cases. All Boards, DSCs, certain Departments which recruit and the MPSC must all have functional video cameras.
There has been a huge clamour amongst the youths and various sections of society who seek transparency and accountability for the aforementioned points which I had suggested for improvement and when followed will lead towards achieving this endeavour.
Since we are dealing with agencies which recruit and protocols; it is equally important for the District Selection Committee Office Memorandum, 2014,to be modified through an Addendum to correct two anomalies.
Anomaly 1 -It has been observed innumerable number of times in DSC Advertisements of certain districts, where “Lower Educationally Qualified Posts” (with or without certificate or diploma course) are accorded a higher pay stature that is at a “Higher Pay Level than “Higher Educationally Qualified Posts” (with or without certificate or diploma course). Immediate correction is needed in this regard to ensure uniformity as per the educational qualification for all the 12 DSCs since posts that require lower educational qualification should not receive a higher pay level than posts that require higher educational qualification.
Anomaly 2 – All DSCS must advertise posts only from Pay Level 1 to Pay Level 5 which are all “under graduate” educationally qualified post which is not the case as of now because certain posts such as Lady Supervisor, PT Instructor, LDA at the District Heads fall at Pay Level 8. Correction to create uniformity in the OM in this regard is compulsory. It must also be noted in the OM 2014 that MPSC / Recruitment Boards will recruit posts falling from Pay Level 6 and above.
Exception can be made to the Central Recruitment Board to recruit constables in the Police, Home Guards and Fire Services from Pay Level 3 to 4. It is imperative that all Group D posts in all state instruments must be recruited by the DSCs. The suggestions above are in public interest of educated unemployed youths.
