Shillong, Oct 15: The Hynniewtrep Youths’ Council (HYC) has demanded the state government to keep on hold the recruitment process for filling up of 21 posts of medical and health officers (M&HO) citing that the allocation of vacancies to the three indigenous tribes appears to be inconsistent with the state’s job reservation policy.
A delegation of the HYC led by its president Roykupar Synrem met and handed over a memorandum to the Commissioner and Secretary in-charge health department Joram Beda, requesting him to address the alleged discrepancies in the allocation of vacancies as announced in the MMSRB recruitment results on October 8.
Out of 21 M&HO posts, 4 posts were allocated to Khasi and Jaintia candidates (19%), 11 posts to Garo candidates (53%), 2 posts to unreserved category (9.5%), and 4 posts to Other Scheduled Tribes/Other Scheduled Castes (OST/OSC) (19%).
The HYC has pointed out that this allocation appears to be inconsistent with the Meghalaya State Reservation Policy of 1971, which stipulates a distribution of 40% for Khasi and Jaintia, 40% for Garo, and 20% for Others.
The HYC has requested a detailed breakdown of the category-wise reservation applied by the MMSRB for the M&HO recruitment, along with supporting documentation.
They have also sought clarification on whether any carry-forward or backlog rules were utilized in the process and requested that the appointment process be kept on hold until the matter is resolved.
The HYC has expressed concerns that the discrepancy has raised significant concerns among Khasi and Jaintia candidates and has urged the Health Department to take corrective measures to ensure adherence to the reservation policy and fairness in the recruitment process .
“We have urge the government to bring out a system which will simplify the process as well as to make people aware whenever there is a recruitment process as to how many posts the Khasi-Jaintia and Garo candidates are eligible for. He (Beda) has given us the explanation and he has also assured us because we have informed him there are various candidates from the Khasi-Jaintia community who are willing to serve in the government institutions but because of the roster, now only four have been filled despite there are lots of them who have been qualified (about 100-200 of them). Because the roster allows only four persons, the rest have been left out. So, we want all those who are willing to serve in various hospitals and various institutions in the state should be given opportunity to serve. Most of them are serving as under 3F employees of the state government and they want to be regularized,” HYC president Roykupar Synrem told reporters after the meeting.
“We also requested that the next recruitment process should be done as soon as possible and he (Beda) has assured us that the next recruitment process will be held most probably by December this year so that candidates who are eligible should apply and they will be accomodated as per sanctioned post or as per roster prepared by the department concerned,” he added.
