Nagaland: Aggrieved nurses stage sit-in

Our Correspondent
Kohima, Nov. 9 (EMN): The staff nurses, who were recruited during the COVID-19 pandemic, staged a sit-in outside the Secretariat in Kohima on Wednesday, demanding the state government to “honour” the cabinet memorandum and the advertisement published two years ago.

The ‘Department Recruitment Aggrieved Nurses 2021’ expressed disappointment at the department’s recent notification on November 2 regarding a “special recruitment drive” to be conducted by Nagaland Public Service Commission (NPSC) or Nagaland Staff Selection Board (NSSB), which included the already appointed 129 staff nurses.

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It may be recalled that the department of Health and Family Welfare recruited 129 staff nurses in 2020 during the COVID pandemic, through an interview (viva voce) conducted by the Department Recruitment Board. A total of 129 were shortlisted on merit basis and appointed.

Dissatisfied over the fresh notification, the agitated nurses asked: “How can we appear for two examinations for the same interview (post)?”

‘Back then, we fulfilled all the criteria required for the post. Only after being shortlisted for the post, the candidates were selected, and then informed. But now, the government is making the 129 posts to be filled through the NPSC,’ they argued.

“Are we cows or pigs? We are also humans. At least give us a reply. We won’t give the examination through NPSC,” said the president of the aggrieved nurses, Lijamo Odyuo.

He added that they would protest until their demands are met.

The nurses were also disappointed at the state government’s non-response to its several representations and an ultimatum served earlier.

Citing the advertisement for the post in July 2020, Odyuo said the applications were invited for recruitment against the newly created posts on a “regular basis” under the Health department. But after getting through the interview, the appointment letter mentioned that the service is “temporarily engaged”, which disappointed the selected candidates.

That is why the aggrieved nurses served an ultimatum to the government on October 20, which expired on October 30, he informed.

‘We thought the department would initiate a meeting and were awaiting their call without rushing. But there was no positive response from their end,’ Odyuo added.

He said that they are ‘not asking for regularisation’. ‘We are asking the authority concerned to honour the cabinet memorandum because once that is done, regularisation will automatically come. Our service regularisation is in the memorandum.’

The department, instead of "honouring the memorandum", is trying to “cheat us and treat us like animals”, he said.

‘We met government officials several times but our demands fell on deaf ears,’ the president added.

He further informed that among the 129 recruited nurses, two had resigned, one passed away and another one got a Central government job, leaving the total number of nurses to 125.

It was also learnt that their salaries were pending for the last five months (since July).