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Dimapur, June 17 (EMN): The Against Corruption and Unabated Taxation (Acaut) on Wednesday said that all credit for clinching the Nagaland Staff Selection Board (NSSB) deal goes to the Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) and Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio.
The Acaut Nagaland said this through a statement on June 17. “It has been a long fought battle but finally wisdom prevailed,” it stated.
“The saga of this historic watershed goes back to 2015 when the Acaut first raised the issue with the T R Zeliang government. It was during the height of the backdoor appointment agitation led by Acaut that it was realised that unless there is a SSB to oversee the selection of all the non-gazetted posts in the state, Nagaland faced a herculean tasks to combat backdoor appointments,” the statement read.
Recalling the initial days of the movement, the Acaut said it first submitted a memorandum to the then Chief Secretary Pankaj Kumar on June 26, 2015, for setting up of SSB to conduct exams for all the posts that fall below the NPSC pay-band criteria, and then the Public Service Aspirants of Nagaland (PSAN) too took up the issue with the government in 2016.
It stated that the Acaut and PSAN later jointly started a hunger strike in Kohima under the banner of PCC, demanding setting up of Lokayukta, SSB and NPSC interview marks reduction. The then government accepted the formation of Lokayukta and reduction of the NPSC interview marks from 75 to 55 but could not succeed in materialising SSB.
“Fortunately for the Naga people, the new NSF team led by President Ninoto Awomi single-mindedly pursued the SSB agenda for which it has finally borne fruit after 5 long years,” the statement read.
However, the Acaut cautioned the NSF and the chief minister that there should be only written exam for selection of candidates under SSB and no interview system, claiming that it will “go the NPSC way” if interview is conducted in recruitment process.
“This radical step of having no interview is in line with the PM Modi government’s decision which has done away with interview for the Group D, C and Group B non-gazetted posts in the central government since 1 Jan 2016,” it said.
“The Acaut would like to put on record that the credit for the formation of the two most important bodies in the state since statehood – the Lokayukta and the SSB, goes to the former CM T R Zeliang and the incumbent CM Neiphiu Rio respectively,” it added.