The Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) has expressed resentment and concern over the recent recruitment in NEIGRIHMS, which, it feels, requires intervention from the state government.
The KSU met Health and Family Welfare Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh today and informed her that the selection of 194 vacant posts of nursing officers as per an advertisement dated August 25, 2023 conducted by AIIMS New Delhi saw 175 males appointed against only 19 females.
Out of these, only 15 are indigenous tribals and the KSU also could not understand why the sex ratio was so skewed towards males when nursing is generally dominated by females.
The KSU further claimed that all the candidates selected have little or no experience as most of them have only cleared their theoretical examination from their respective institutes with no real practical experience.
Secondly, the union stated that for the Group B and C recruitment, which is ongoing, examinations are being conducted by an agency called HLL and many local indigenous candidates were not able to appear for the exam as the test centres they were allotted were in Guwahati, Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Delhi.
“This again has deprived the opportunity for local indigenous candidates of the state. Moreover, this very agency, for the post of record clerk, has set up questions in Hindi, going beyond the specific guidelines and syllabus. The Union find it bogus and phony that candidates from Meghalaya need to give their examination in other states for recruitment of post(s) in the state itself and this is not the first time that this has happened and the union cannot allow it to be a precedence in future,” the pressure group said.
The KSU suspects that this was all done to deprive locals of jobs in NEIGRIHMS.
“Thirdly, the Union has come to learn that the selection/screening committee is being coerced to publish and send out appointment letters hastily to the candidates who have passed the examination without formally verifying the proper documentation and following the due procedures,” the KSU said, adding that this may lead in selection of an undeserving candidate or may create room for favouritism and nepotism.
