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Youth protesting outside the NPSC office in Kohima on Thursday.[/caption]
Kohima Bureau
Kohima, Nov. 16 (EMN): The sit-in protest initiated by the anti-graft movement Acaut and Public Service Aspirants of Nagaland under the banner of Public Coordination Committee outside the Civil Secretariat continued for the second day without any report of aggression from either sides- the government and protesters.
The core issues in demand include setting up of Lokayukta in Nagaland at the earliest, revoking the decision to scrap Class-III posts from the purview of the NPSC, declaring the marks and answer keys in all stages of NPSC examinations and also declare waiting list and to immediately terminate all back-door appointments made after June 6, 2016.
The youth protesters on Thursday marched from the Civil Secretariat to the Nagaland Public Service Commission (NPSC) office shouting slogans for transparency in the commission and justice for service aspirants. Later, NPSC officials including the NPSC chairman, secretary, deputy secretary and controller of examination agreed to meet the officials of ACAUT, PSAN and PCC. It was learnt that during the meeting the latter put across that the NPSC should follow the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) pattern of marking by setting up a minimum/maximum benchmark. However, the NPSC officials were said to have refused to this demand stating that they had the right to award marks to candidates. In the matter regarding declaration of marks and answer keys in all stages of NPSC examinations, the commission officials reportedly continued to cite ‘some rules’ by the government.
The lengthy discussion between the two parties failed to yield any concrete assurance from the commission members, it was reported. “The NPSC tried to shift all the blame to the government. They (NPSC) have discretionary powers at least to change the marking pattern in tune with that of the UPSC but they only seem to depend on the government to issue every minute directive,” one of the PCC officials said.
The three-day protest will culminate on Friday. Towards this, the PCC has appealed to all public service aspirants and ‘right-thinking citizens’ to join the protest, which is for the ‘benefit of the younger and future generations of Nagaland’.
[caption id="attachment_150248" align="aligncenter" width="550"]
Youth protesting outside the NPSC office in Kohima on Thursday.[/caption]