Illegal appointments: ACAUT demands action, not rhetoric from chief minister

‘Shall not happen again’ one thing, taking action another, says anti-graft group 

Dimapur, March 26 (EMN): The Against Corruption and Unabated Taxation (ACAUT) has lashed out at the chief minister of Nagaland for not taking actual prosecution and police action against those involved in alleged illegal appointments in the Home department, specially the police. Rather, the ACAUT remarked, Chief Minister Dr. Shurhozelie Liezietsu had to make emotive statements such as “…these mistakes will not be repeated in the future.”

The ACAUT issued a statement on Sunday demanding actual action.

The organisation stated: “When the CM Dr. Shurhozelie Liezietsu says ‘…these mistakes will not be repeated in the future’ while coming to the aid of the beleaguered Home Minister on the backdoor appointment issue, the ACAUT would like to asks the honourable chief minister as to exactly how he is going to tackle the illegal backdoor appointments in the police department and government departments in general.”

As far as the 2, 078 backdoor appointments in the police department are concerned, the ACAUT reminded, the Home minister cannot escape responsibility.

Secondly, the statement said, if the commandants and police superintendents have been making unauthorized appointments as alleged on the floor of the assembly, the ACAUT asked what action the Home Minister was going to take against these authorities.

A third query that the organisation listed was whether the Home Minister will terminate all the 2, 078 backdoor appointees ‘in the interest of capable Naga youths.’ Fourthly, it added, whether the police headquarters was ‘ready to respond to the controversy.’

Apart from the 2, 078 police appointees, the ACAUT demanded that the NPF government terminate all the BDOs, senior lecturers, medical Officers, SDOs, JEs, CDPOs and other gazetted backdoor appointees in the RDD, Social Welfare., School Education, PWD, SCERT, Higher Education, and Medical department, among others.

“With all the backdoor appointments, scams, nepotism and corruption in the NPF government, perhaps it’s time for young Nagas to ponder whether the NPF party should be allowed to come back after the 2018 elections,” the ACAUT wondered.

According to the statement, Dr. Shurhozelie Liezietsu had put his foot down against termination of backdoor appointees, as NPF President then in 2016, in his circular dated March 20, 2016 to the then Chief Minister TR Zeliang and the cabinet ministers.

“In fact, he wanted regularization of all those backdoor appointees who had completed 3 years in service. He had warned that unless this is done so ‘more than 1000 people will go against you in the next general election like 1993 episode where more than 800 senior people went against us on the issue of superannuation of age’,” the ACAUT stated by the quote.

Here, the anti-corruption group remarked that it was ‘crystal clear’ that the policy of the present NPF government will continue with the backdoor appointments in all the departments till the next general elections in 2018.

While appreciating MLA Mhonlumo Kikon for forcing the government to bring out the exact status of backdoor appointment in the Home department, the ACAUT said that the educated unemployed community will “appreciate if he can initiate measures to strike down the office memorandums of 2008, 2010 and 11/8/16 giving unfettered right to the government to make backdoor appointments or to regularize all backdoor appointees after 3 years in service.”

The organisation also criticized the speaker of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly. ‘Knowing the facts,’ the speaker cannot expunge Mhonlumo Kikon’s statement equating backdoor appointments to corruption.

“When politicians make backdoor appointments, it necessarily amounts to buying of votes; or when jobs are sold in the Nagaland market for crores of rupees, or when daughters and sons of politicians / bureaucrats are accommodated in the job market, the speaker not to equate this with corruption speaks volumes about one’s ethics,” the ACAUT added.