The much awaited preliminary result of NPSC was out on Tuesday, the 30th of Oct. 2012 bringing mixed emotion among the aspirants. With this the wait is informally over for those who got through to the next round. Kudos to NPSC for trying to make the examination more systematic, fair and error free by publishing the preliminary marks. However, I am writing to beg you to please address our grievances at the earliest on humanitarian ground as this examination will decide our future. The fate of thousands of aspirants lies in your hands.
The preliminary results shattered the dreams of many serious civil service aspirants as the cut-offs sky rocketed beyond the expectations. Many serious aspirants couldn’t make it just because they thought 95+ is on a very safe side (and they risked taking the risks) and not because they didn’t put enough effort like those who got through. We do labour and study diligently and we are also aware of the value of labour. However, it is now clear that despite our hard labour we find ourselves severely handicapped by the way NPSC is assessing the results. Having said that, I would like to bring to your notice that the preliminary examination was filled with erroneous questions. That is not, however, my point of contention here as NPSC awarded equal marks to all (4 marks and got the wrong answers corrected). Why I am highlighting this is because even a single mark can decide if we are qualified for the mains or not. I missed the bus just by some decimal fraction. After proper analyzing the marks of some of my friends who made it I realized maybe some of them got through because they were awarded extra marks as their total questions(attempted plus blanks) crossed 200 up to 207(as far as my research confirmed). Had the same yardstick was applied to me and to some of the unsuccessful candidates who missed the cut-offs just by decimal fractions or by some few marks, we would be now preparing for the mains like those successful candidates. The Bitter(for us)-Sweet(for those who got extra questions) policy of unjust competition of NPSC has left me wondering if we can trust NPSC and proudly regard it as the highest recruiting body of our state. They say if you have a problem, tell your parent, teacher or someone whom you trust but now we don’t know where to go and to whom we should address our grievances as NPSC is tight-lipped regarding the issue(more than a week now after the results were declared). The results have caused depression. My efforts have gone in vain. I was confident of clearing the examination this time after many attempts. Many serious candidates are having sleepless nights as they have to wait for another year (2013) to try getting a ticket to achieve their dreams. Even the criterion they adopted was also alarming as the ratio stands at less than 1:7 where as the posts advertised is 102(if I’m not mistaken).
Marx said that one should be ruthlessly critical of everything that exists, of the existing order, ruthless in that one will not be scared of the results of one’s research, nor of the powerful people.
I sincerely appeal to your authority and sense of humanity to pursue a systematic assessment of the following facts and concerns highlighted above. If the concerned authority could also kindly tell us the ratio of selection for this year as we have meticulously waiting to hear from you. Let us not reduce the concept of competition to the question of who is lucky. Let us all fight for justice if it is genuine and true. May God help us all.
On behalf of all NPSC aspirants,
K. Chepho Naga,
Upper A.G. Kohima, Nagaland
