Shillong, Oct 31: Union Health Minister J P Nadda conveyed to the Khasi Students Union that hiring will stop until a committee looks into alleged faulty policies.
A KSU delegation along with Chief Minister Conrad Sangma met Nadda in New Delhi on Saturday.
General secretary Reuben Najiar said Nadda assured them of a time-bound intervention..
“The union health minister has assured us that he will set up a committee to look into the various policy matters because there are some legal aspects as well that they want to look into when it comes to reservation and other aspects and based on his assurance he stated that he will try to resolve this matter within a month,” Najiar said after the meeting.
“As far as the recruitment is concerned, he has stated that there will be no recruitment until all these issues are being resolved,” he said.
Nadda told the delegation that he had already held a governing council meeting with NEIGRIHMS authorities last week and would fast-track the matter.
The memorandum of the KSU pointed out that policy changes at NEIGRIHMS have downgraded the institute and cut down opportunities for indigenous tribal youth. It flagged the abandonment of the 80:20 female to male ratio for nurses, which is followed across AIIMS and other premier institutes to protect privacy and comfort of women in obstetrics, gynaecology, maternity and paediatric wards.
The union said the 2023 NORCET recruitment, the first through the common test, resulted in selection of 175 male nurses against 19 female nurses out of 194 posts, with many selected from a particular state, lacking experience and facing complaints of incompetence. It pointed to a Central Administrative Tribunal ruling in Ranveer Singh that upheld 80 percent reservation for women nurses as a special provision under Article 15(3).
The memorandum also accused the administration of protecting two male nurses charge-sheeted for alleged molestation of an indigenous woman and a minor girl, allowing them to continue duty and even allowing a protest by male staff in support of the accused in a POCSO case.
The union also raised new eligibility condition of two years’ experience in a 50-bed hospital which makes PHC and CHC nurses ineligible, reduction of upper age limit to 30 years from 35 years , outsourcing of recruitment to agency HLL through NORCET and CBT mode despite lack of computer centres in Meghalaya and allegations of malpractice, excess EWS backlog vacancies in violation of DoPT norms, and continuation of 27 percent OBC reservation in a state with no OBC list and 15 percent SC reservation despite one percent SC population, allowing non-domiciles to claim quota in violation of Supreme Court judgments in Bir Singh and MCD vs Veena.
KSU wanted granting NEIGRIHMS Institute of National Importance status like AIIMS and PGIMER for autonomy which will boost research and patient care for the entire Northeast.
