Awaiting appointment letters, frustrated MPSC candidates resort to hunger strike

The appointment letter has not been issued due to the cancellation of the government decision to give benefits to candidates belonging to the Socially and Economically Backward Classes (SEBC) from the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category and a pending petition in the Bombay high court

Mumbai: After waiting more than a year for appointment letters, around 50 engineers who passed the Maharashtra Civil Engineering Service Examination 2020 resorted to a hunger strike at Azad Maidan on Monday. Most people in the strike were forced to take up other odd jobs for their survival.

Shravan Ganje, one of the affected candidates, said, “I will pay homage to a letter received from the MPSC about my eligibility for an appointment after the three-step selection process. We are yet to receive an appointment letter from the department. The government must think about our mental stability and act accordingly.” (Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo)

The advertisement for this examination conducted through the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) was released on March 18, 2020. The results were announced on May 31, 2022. On August 12, 2022, MPSC made a department-wise recommendation to the government for the candidates who passed the examination.

The appointment letter has not been issued due to the cancellation of the government decision to give benefits to candidates belonging to the Socially and Economically Backward Classes (SEBC) from the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category and a pending petition in the Bombay high court.

“The dispute is pending in court regarding 21 seats in the EWS category. Although it is possible to issue appointment letters to 196 passed candidates in other categories, the public works department and water resources department of the state government are reluctant to issue them,” a candidate who was present during the hunger strike said.

Despite several attempts, the state government did not comment on the issue till the time the article went to the press.

Shravan Ganje, one of the affected candidates, said, “I will pay homage to a letter received from the MPSC about my eligibility for an appointment after the three-step selection process. We are yet to receive an appointment letter from the department. The government must think about our mental stability and act accordingly.”

Taking Ganje’s point forward, another candidate, who was selected for a Class 1 post in the state government, said, “I took a loan to complete my MPSC education and am presently working in a private firm for my survival.”

These passed candidates, who are engineers, were recommended by the ‘MPSC’ to the Public Works Department and Water Resources Department of the State Government. Thereafter, the documents of the recommended candidates were verified by these departments in September, October, and November 2022.