Nursing aspirants flay Nagaland government’s special recruitment drive; demand fair competition

DIMAPUR — The Nursing Aspirants of Nagaland has expressed dismay over the “special recruitment drive (one time dispensation)” notified by department of Health and Family Welfare, specifically for those who were appointed during the COVID pandemic on a contractual basis.

This came just two days after the Nagaland Medical Students’ Association (NMSA) requested the state government to withhold the scheduled departmental examination for regularisation of doctors recruited on a contractual basis during the pandemic and fill the posts through the Nagaland Public Service Commission (NPSC) Combined Technical Services Examination (CTSE).

In a press release, the nursing aspirants said that ‘inviting only 124 nurses to fill the regular posts of Staff Nurse’ disregards the “efforts of qualified aspiring nurses and the values of meritocracy and fair competition”.

Demanding an open recruitment from qualified nurses through NPSC CTSE, they said “this can be the only way that recruitment of government nurses be done without benefiting only a select few”.

The nursing aspirants also extended solidarity with the NMSA in its demand for an equal, free and fair competition and transparent recruitment process, saying that “special recruitment process that benefits a select few at the expense of the broader medical fraternity should be rescinded and done with”.

In a letter addressed to the general secretary of Combined Technical Association Nagaland, the nursing aspirants also expressed their grievances over the move of the Health department, stating that its notification dated August 21 ‘invalidates the efforts of other aspiring nurses who have been serving the community and the government even during the Covid pandemic, both in public and private sectors’.

“We therefore ask for your association’s support in our demand for a free and fair competition for all,” read the letter.

Also read: Nagaland medical students urge government to withhold departmental exam