SHILLONG, April 11: The Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) has requested the intervention of the Lok Sabha MP from Shillong, Dr Ricky AJ Syngkon into the need for the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) to review the roster register and recruitment rules through its governing council.
“We humbly seek your intervention in the said matter for the growth of the medical institute. The institute needs to review its roster register and its recruitment rules through its Governing Council. If nothing is being done NEIGRIHMS will be set for depriving conditions and lower standards in the upcoming years,” KSU president Lambokstarwell Marngar said in a letter handed over to Syngkon during a meeting held here today.
Referring to the ongoing recruitment in NEIGRIHM, which was advertised on March 22, Marngar said, “Various post was advertised which include Nursing Officer, Store Keeper and others in Grade/Group B and C and the Union found various anomalies which are detrimental to the growth and welfare of the Medical Institute and as well as to the interest of the indigenous people of the State.”
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Earlier, the KSU delegation had also met the NEIGRIHMS Director on March 24, seeking for clarification and also inspected the Roster Register of NEIGRIHMS on March 27, in regard to the reservation issues where the Union discovered that there were various irregularities in the plotting of the roster register.
A memorandum was accordingly submitted to the Director of NEIGRIHMS on April 1, citing the Union observations and demanding several other modifications for smooth functioning of the Medical Institute. “But to the utter dismay of the Union, none of the suggestions were taken for consideration and a reply to the Union memorandum was given on April 4, 2025, stating unjustified and irrelevant context,” Marngar stated.
In regard to the age limit, he said based on the advertisement the age limit for nursing officers and other posts has been reduced to 30 years and the Pharmacist to 27 years. In the previous years of recruitment in NEIGRIHMS, the age limit was always set at 35 years and all of sudden it was brought down to 30 years which has impacted the aspiring candidates drastically. “This was done by the Director and the Deputy Director with malicious intent.”
“Therefore, the Union is of the view that the amendment made in the Recruitment Rules for limiting the upper age limit to 30 years must be scrapped and original age limit of 35 years must be put into place with other relaxation for reserved categories,” Marngar said.
On the male and female nursing officer ratio, the KSU president said the previous nursing officer recruitment done in the year 2023 through NORCET was a huge blunder on the path of the NEIGRIHMS administration whereby a huge number of untrained unqualified male nurses were recruited. Even the administration of NEIGRIHMS themselves stated that these male nurses are ‘leftovers’ who have not been selected in other institutes and have been dumped in NEIGRIHMS all because the administration was shortsighted for not having male female ratio of 20:80. These male nurses are mostly from Rajasthan and have no experience whatsoever and are a nuisance in the medical sector.
“Countless complaints have been received by the Union against these male nurses who are incompetent in delivering out their work and are also a threat to the lives of the patients. The Union would like to state that all the other institutions such as AIIMS, JIPMER, etc, have a ratio of 20:80 male female ratio. If the other institution can have a 20:80 ratio then what is stopping NEIGRIHMS also to follow the same,” he said while demanding that 20:80 male female ratio should be made mandatory for smooth functioning of the institute.
Further, the KSU leader said that in the present advertisement for nursing officers, one of the criteria mentioned for those with GNM is that a candidate who is eligible to apply must have 2 (two) years’ experience from a 50 bedded hospital. This is the first time that NEIGRIHMS had sought for experience from a candidate.
“The union does not have any objection for seeking 2 (two) years’ experience but the clause from 50 bedded hospitals must be removed. The reason being that this will halt or make the local nurses ineligible to apply who have been working for years in PHCs, CHCs and other hospitals in Meghalaya as most of these medical institutions does not have 50 bedded but that does not conclude that nurses who work in such small hospitals are incapable.”
Stating that the union is not in favour of Computer Based Test (CBT) mode, Marngar said, “Such exams will be biased because with lack of computer centres, there will be different shifts for exams. The questions from one shift may be easier or tougher to the other shifts or if the questions are repeated, it may give unnecessary advantage to other candidates. It is also seen in the previous recruitment that candidates from the State have to give their examinations in other States because there is a lack of computer centres, and this is a major hurdle especially to those coming from a financially weaker section of the society. So, the Union humbly demands for offline examination through OMR for recruitment.”
Expressing concern over the inadequate reservation of STs, Marngar said there is a 27% reservation for OBCs and 15% reservation for SCs in the recruitment of central government. According to him, in the State of Meghalaya, we have a Scheduled Tribe list and a Schedule Caste List but there is no list for OBC. Meghalaya does not recognise any OBC in the State. Whereas there is only 7.5% reservation for the STs in Group B. Meghalaya where 90% of the population is a tribal population. Such a small amount of representation for STs is inadequate. Also, with excess reservation for other tribes which do not include in the list of Meghalaya further leads to influx.
“Thus, it is appropriate that reservation for the STs in Group B be increased for STs. The North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) is a prime example, that although being a Central Institute, through its rules has changed the reservations for the betterment of the University and the indigenous people of Meghalaya,” he stated in the letter.
Further, Marngar pointed out that the Institute since its inception has been conducting its own examination for recruitment but under the regime of the present Director and Deputy Director has previously conducted examination for nursing officer through NORCET which was disastrous and now it is stated that for the next recruitment NEIGRIHMS will not be conducting any more recruitments for Group B & C. NEIGRIHMS is an autonomous institution and should remain autonomous.
“It is the anti-tribal motivation of the Director and the Deputy Director which is causing all such problems. They have a bigger malicious motive which needs to be intervened immediately,” he alleged. (NNN)
