Mizo students stage demonstration

Members of Mizoram’s apex student body, Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) on Monday staged a picketing in front of Mizoram Public Service Commission (MPSC) office in Aizawl preventing the commission chairman and other officials from attending office. The student body has been demanding the resignation of the commission chairman JC Ramthanga over the alleged irregularities in the combined examination for civil service, police service and other services conducted by the commission in October last year. MZP president H. Lalthianghlima said that the student body is doubtful about the fairness of the combined examination as marks obtained by some candidates are believed to be altered by examiners using correcting fluid, which was never practiced in the examinations conducted by the commission in the past.

The organisation general secretary Chinkhanmanga Thomte also alleged that there was evidence of marks obtained by some candidates being erased and rewritten(re-alloted) using correcting fluid in answer papers and  mark tabulation sheets, which raised concern about the fairness of the commission.  “The agitation to block the MPSC chairman and other officials from attending office was instigated by the failure of the chairman to comply with our request to resign within the deadline,” Lalthianghlima said.

The student body had asked Ramthanga to take moral responsibility and resign before last week in order to protect the reputation of the commission, he said. He said that the student body will intensify its agitation by preventing the commission chairman and other officials from attending office till the chairman tender his resignation. Meanwhile, officials of MPSC said that marks were never altered (either added or deducted) by the commission. Normally, answer sheets used to undergo three-tier of evaluation and the evaluators are not allowed to give marks on answer sheets except on tabulation sheets, they said.

However, sometimes, evaluators tend to give marks on answer sheets, which are required to be erased or removed before passing on the answer sheets to the next evaluator, they said. This is done to ensure independent evaluation, they said. The marks given separately by the first and second evaluators on tabulation sheets, are compared by the third evaluator or scrutiniser, who allot the final marks after making correction if the need arises, officials said. Subsequently, the final marks given by the scrutiniser are carefully examined by the MPSC office after which final tabulation is made, they added.