Ghunavi G Kinnimi Sumi
First of all, greeting you all in the name of young political party and let's go straight to the point.
1. If Rising People's Party (RPP) is genuinely fighting for unemployment problems, backdoor appointments and hard working public aspirants, why should they even file PIL to suspend appointment for those posts which come under the preview of NPSC? If they are actually standing for the benefits of hardworking aspirants, they should press hard on government to lift ban of appointment to the services instead of suspending it. As we are all aware that the state government totally banned fresh appointment and halted open recruitment for almost two years and it brought so many untold hardships to the genuine aspirants and most importantly, for those aspirants who are on the verge of overage. After 2 years, the state government finally ordered to partially lift appointment with effect from July/2021. Perhaps, it was good news for those genuine aspirants who successfully cleared NPSC-2019, various departmental exams and also for those aspirants who have been waiting to get job in Nagaland. However, it was just the opposite because the main motive of RPP is to discourage open recruitment and encourage more backdoor entry thereby filed PIL to delay and suspend appointment even for open recruitment. As we know, when the appointment to the public services is halted, it will simply defeat equal opportunity in employment as enshrined in Article 16. The Supreme Court order stated that "as the government offices can't function with skeletal and unsupported staff at all levels and keeping in view of availability of vacancies, importance of duty, in the interest of public services and in view of administrative exigencies, the government has right to engage any qualified/experienced profession for certain job as stop gap arrangement till such time regular recruit is made available ". I don't know how this stop gap arrangement is made in Nagaland state but it's the duty of RPP to know as they're well learnt but keeping in mind that that this court order of stop gap arrangement will always encourage political set up and bureaucracy to violate the soul of Article 14 & 16 by trampling over the height of other eligible and more meritorious persons through the backdoor entry. Even though the service of those backdoor appointees will never be regularised as in the case of Supreme Court Judgement case of Umadevi vs Karnataka State, they will extend their service till regular recruit is joined. So in a nutshell, by suspending appointment through direct recruitment, RPP is indirectly encouraging more backdoor entry and also extensions service for those backdoor appointees.
2. On the issue of Nagaland State Staff Selection Board (NSSB), the state government has taken so many commendable steps on their part to make it operational at the earliest. As we know the state government already implemented NSSB recruitment rules with effect from July/2020 and in this regard, Applications for the post of chairman, members, ministerial and supporting staff were invited through open advertisement by recruitment/deputation. However, the same was put on hold due to ENSF exorbitant demands for the post of Chairman & Members on rotational basis amongst the tribes of Nagaland and also 45% reservation for six tribes of Eastern Nagaland. In this connection, the government held several rounds of meetings with students and tribal bodies from all over Nagaland but it didn't reach to an amicable agreement so the government constituted a special committee to review the demands and reservation of ENSF. The controversy of ENSF exorbitant demands may or may not be resolved even within a year or decade but the government has every rights to keep NSSB in abeyance till further orders to prevent any utter chaos and untoward incident in the larger interest of public. As the entire problem on the delay in setting up NSSB lies within the general public, the government has nothing to be blamed. The unsolved problem lies within the public, students bodies and tribals bodies for their involvement on unreasonable and unconstitutional demands, which will eventually lead to resort violence, agitation, damage public property and disturb peaceful environment. So, how can we blame government when the entire problem lies within the public? Why blame government for delay in setting up NSSB when public are so uncooperative? How can we expect NSSB to function without chairman, members, supporting staff, etc? If RPP is so concerned about NSSB to become operational at the earliest, they should first consult all the NGOS, Groups, Communities, Students and Students bodies from all over Nagaland on the controversy of ENSF exorbitant demands before approaching state governments. PSAN, ACAUT and NSF have come this far to resolve these problems so never try to out smart without knowing the ground reality and details on the subject matters (being an infant political party) before taking such extreme step or else, you will always end up being a clown.
3. In direction of supreme court and Departmental of Personnel & Training's circular, it's absolutely necessary for the central/state government to access vacancies and fill out vacant posts at all levels so that every year vacancies that may occur are filled. For this purpose, timely steps are required to be taken for assessment vacancies, issue of advertisement, conducting of examinations and interviews, declaration of finals results and issue of appointment orders. Further, the UPSC recruitment rules clearly stated that any post which doesn't come under the preview of UPSC will be directly recruited by concerned department, SSC or any subordinate services. Likewise the posts which don't come under the preview of NPSC will go to concerned department for recruitment till NSSB is made functional. Keeping in view of the supreme court judgement which clearly stated " Departmental recruitment on appointment to any post under the central/state government is constitutional valid, if it is made after a proper advertisement and inviting applications from all eligible candidates and holding of selection by a body of recruitment board whose members are fair and impartial through a written examination/interview for judging the inter se merit of candidates who have made in response to the advertisement made . And every recruitment board should maintain minute details of records throughout the entire recruitment process for fair and transparency in selection. However, any allegation made without any sufficient proof and evidence will not be entertained at any stage of recruitment process ". Therefore, till such time NSSB is made functional, RPP should urge government to speedily fill up vacancies through open recruitment, inter se merit, fair and transparent means by preventing backdoor entry. If RPP is suspicious about malpractices in departmental recruitment, they have every right to collect data of all the candidates during the entire stage of recruitment process, which is allowed by supreme court for fair and transparency in recruitment. RPP should not simply keep suspending departmental recruitment as clearly stated in point (2) as it will only hamper the career of those aspirants who are on the verge of overage. Keeping in mind that even though RPP is the largest political party in Nagaland, they don't have any authority to grant age relaxation to those candidates who become overage even by just 1 day. They should just go ahead with government decision on departmental recruitment till such time NSSB is made functional by strictly keeping vigilant during the entire process of recruitment. If there's any suspicious during the recruitment process for RPP, the recent supreme court judgment of 'Tainted SSC examination of 2017' and 'Cash for jobs scam' of Assam state will be helpful. Lastly, It's true that the allegations made by any political party is full of fake and baseless until it's proven in the court of laws with sufficient fact and evidence. Most of them will simply go into conclusion without knowing any subject topic and civil servants will always end up finding the introduction throughout the century. That's the reason even the most brilliant IAS and UPSCs successful candidates are suffering from those political parties on the issue of "To be or not To be"
4. Lastly, NPSC (Civil services) has been lapsed for almost 2 years, Combined educational services is under process. Combined Technical Services will be held shortly in this month. Even recruitment for the post of Stenographer is already advertised. Therefore, RPP should urge NPSC to notify NPSC (civil services) advertisement without further delay and conduct all the notified advertisements under NPSC and fill up vacancies at the earliest instead of suspending appointment. Or else, RPP will end up paying heavy costs to those successful NPSC -2019 and departmental exams whose appointment get delayed. Because there's no merit in RPP's PIL as clearly stated above in brief.
5. Lastly, even if NSSB is formed, the entire credit will always go to PSAN so I don't want the young political party (RPP) to be excited. (RPP), being the youngest political party, has so many homeworks to be done, they shouldn't simply jump into conclusion. They have so many things to be done and fulfilled. Otherwise, the party will simply turn into Fooling People's Party (FPP).
