Newly floated Rising People’s Party (RPP) has requested the state cabinet consider age relaxation for Nagaland Public Service Commission (NPSC) and Nagaland Staff Selection Board on humanitarian grounds since the exams could not be conducted due to the Covid pandemic.
RPP president Joel Naga and general secretary Amai Chingkhu pointed out that the last NPSC exam was conducted in 2019 and examination for NPSC combined civil services exam and combined technical services examination for 2020 was yet to be conducted.
While admitting that the Covid-19 pandemic had thrown normal life out of gear, RPP however emphasised that the State government should ensure that no section of people was victimised.
For instance, if a candidate had had his last chance of appearance in 2020, then his/her case should be considered and relaxation in age given whenever NPSC decides to conduct the exams, they pointed out.
Recalling that the State government had announced setting up of Nagaland Staff Selection Board (NSSB) exactly a year back and formulated the NSSB Regulations, 2020 subsequently, Naga and Chingkhu said they therefore expected the government would desist from conducting departmental exams henceforth.
However, they said it had come to their notice that some departments conducted departmental exams in 2020 even after NSSB was set up on the ground that the board was yet to be operational.
Hence, they wanted to know if NPSC exams in 2020 were cancelled due to the pandemic, why departmental exams were conducted in the same year. They requested chief secretary to issue a clarification since this was a very serious allegation.
The two leaders said RPP expected NSSB operational issues to be sorted out by now and all departmental exams discontinued.
Pointing out that the pain and frustration of diligent and aspiring candidates wanting to join the State bureaucracy were very real, they said they expected the State government to stop playing with the emotions of “our” students.