Aizawl: The Mizo Students’ Union (MSU) on Saturday demanded the resignation of Mizoram Public Service Commission (MPSC) chairman R Lalramnghaka by Nov 19, holding him responsible for the suffering faced by govt job aspirants in the state.MSU also sought the constitution of a high-level inquiry commission to investigate alleged lapses by MPSC over the past two years. It claimed that the commission had issued more than 20 corrigenda after publication of examination results during the period.The demands came a day after Mizoram govt acknowledged a serious technical error in the tabulation of marks for the food, civil supplies and consumer affairs (FCS&CA) department’s storekeeper recruitment examination, raising questions over the validity of the results declared on Oct 23.The candidates selected by MPSC are currently undergoing training under the FCS&CA department.The department said it received a communication from the MPSC secretary on Nov 12 informing it of an error in the tabulation of written-examination marks supplied to the departmental promotion committee (DPC) on Oct 16.The error occurred while scanned OMR response-sheet data was being imported into an Excel spreadsheet, resulting in the inadvertent inclusion of invalid roll numbers, the department said.The recruitment process was initiated to fill 15 vacant storekeeper posts through direct recruitment. The written examination was held on April 30, with 1,945 candidates appearing.On Sept 30, the department received a list of 70 candidates who had qualified for interviews, along with a separate list of 10 candidates under the ex-servicemen category. The marks obtained by the candidates were not disclosed.DPC conducted interviews on Oct 14, 15 and 16. On the evening of Oct 16, it received the candidates’ written-examination marks from MPSC in hard and soft copies.DPC combined the written-examination and interview scores and submitted the merit list to govt for approval. The results were declared on Oct 23.The results listed 14 successful candidates and 28 candidates on the waiting list under the unreserved category. One candidate was selected and four were placed on the waiting list under the ex-servicemen category.Appointment orders were issued to all 15 selected candidates on Oct 27, and their places of posting were announced on Nov 10. A five-day training programme began at the Directorate on Nov 11.The department said the recruitment process would be reviewed by the competent authorities in view of the error reported by MPSC. Govt expressed regret over the lapse and apologised to the affected candidates.
