The bane of administration in Nagaland for so long has been that the quality of its work force has never been up to the standard that is expected in efficiently running of the administration. Appointments particularly in the middle and lower rung bureaucracy have mostly been done by politicians through back door manipulations. This has resulted in unqualified personnel and subsequently poor motivation and interest resulting in the deteriorating work ethics and culture. What is required is a more open system of recruitment process that will give an equal opportunity to the qualified and deserving youths waiting in the wings.
Against this backdrop, the Naga Students Federation (NSF) has once again reminded the State government for the requisition of all available posts starting from LDA grades and above in all government departments to the NPSC. Particularly with election due early next year there is likely to be increase in backdoor appointments. And containing this menace will hardly be an easy proposition given the authority’s cold shoulder on the issue in the past. The NSF has rightly mentioned about how, many of the department officials, hand in glove with politician make random appointments without the least concern for efficiency. This is also a blatant violation of rules and procedures and cannot be tolerated in any civilized society.
For many years now, a majority of job vacancies in the government sector remained the reserve of the rich and powerful, of those few who had the access to information; hook up with politicians and bureaucrats and also the resource to see the payoffs. This as such was the only qualification that was needed to get you the much sought after job in the government service. As raised by the NSF, the State government should do the honest and right thing by making public job vacancies in the various State run departments and putting forward the vacant posts for recruitment through the NPSC and in the process put to rest both apprehension and genuine grievances of the public about illegal appointments to government jobs. Better still; each government department should in a voluntary manner throw open their doors thereby partially removing the iron curtain that shielded the practice of nepotism and corruption in job recruitments. Once this is done, there is bound to be greater number of jobs accessible to those who deserve them.
Only an open job recruitment process will give an equal opportunity to everyone and the best can be selected from the vast pool of qualified unemployed people, especially the Naga youths who have been starved of employment opportunities (other than the Nagaland Civil Service/Police Service). As a result, with the absorption of the better qualified personnel into the government sector; the much needed enthusiasm that is clearly lacking in administration can be brought in by today’s qualified younger workforces who have the creativity and innovative spirit to reinvigorate the lackadaisical bureaucracy. The quality of governance is also bound to improve by having the right people in the right job.
