Naga Students’ Federation objects to viva-voce in NSSB recruitment process

Our Correspondent
Kohima, Sep. 13 (EMN): The Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) on Tuesday objected to the interview component of the Nagaland Staff Selection Board (NSSB) recruitment process, stating that there should not be any room for ‘loopholes’.

Addressing a press conference at its office, NSF President, Kegwayhun Tep maintained that the federation along with the student community fought for the constitution of the NSSB to ensure meritocracy, fairness and transparency in the process of recruitment.

While acknowledging the newly constituted board and integrity of the members, he expressed apprehension over the recently notified NSSB advertisement.

The NSSB recently announced that the Combined Staff Recruitment Examination for filling up around 600 posts will be held on November 11 and 12.

The president stated that 12.5% of the total marks were allotted for the interview, which he claimed, was going to create ‘room for manipulation’ in the process of the recruitment.

In this regard, he informed that the NSF had written a letter of objection to the chief secretary on September 10, either to scrap the interview system or minimise the marks allotted for viva-voce.

‘In any manner, we don’t want the NSSB to be put on hold, because we want to ensure that the examination is conducted on time. Those departments that are yet to send the requisition can keep sending and be accommodated and there should not be any hindrance’, he said.

He asserted that the modalities of NSSB are framed on the basis of the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), which does not require an interview to qualify for any grade 3 post.

‘As far as the practicality of Nagaland is concerned, many of the departments are of the view that physical test and verification will be required in order to see the efficiency of the individual to recruit.

‘If so required, certain marks be allotted or for that matter, physical interview, however, this maximum 12.5% wherein some categories come up to 50-75 marks, is likely for the board to manipulate’, claimed Tep.

Further, he said that the NSF would not hinder the conduct of the examinations but will not allow the interview process unless the demand of the federation is fulfilled.

He added that the NSSB is going to recruit more than 500 persons so there should not be any anomalies or manipulation from the first cycle of the examination.

Further, Tep said that ahead of the NSSB advertisement, the federation had filed RTIs in 64 departments to note the vacancies.

However, despite receiving the same from more than 40 departments, the tally of the vacancies reported through RTI and the vacancies sent to the NSSB did not tally.

“We have seen disparities in almost all the departments and for which we demand all the departments to cooperate with the student community and send all the available vacancies that come under the purview of NSSB so that examination is conducted under the board,” said Tep.

Reacting to the recently circulated message of a list of backdoor appointees, Tep said the federation, without any evidence, cannot intervene on the matter. However, after coming across it on social media, it had written to the government to verify whether the news is true. He added the federation is yet to receive a reply from the concerned department.