SHILLONG, MAY 21: The Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) on Wednesday demanded the North-Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) to increase the MBBS seats for students from Meghalaya.
In a memorandum to the Director of the Institute, HYC president Roy Kupar Synrem said the number of seats for MBBS courses in NEIGRIHMS reserved for the state of Meghalaya as per the admission notice in the year 2023-2024 is only 14 seats out of 50 seats.
The state of Nagaland is given 10 Seats and the open to all North Eastern States including Sikkim is given 18 seats. As it is, other NE States including Nagaland have already started their medical colleges in their respective States.
“Therefore, we demand that the seats for the State of Meghalaya should be increased from the current sessions,” he said.
Synrem also pointed out that NEIGRIHMS have the College of Nursing providing for both M.Sc Nursing and B.Sc Nursing Courses with a total of 10 seats and 50 seats, respectively.
“However, no seats are reserved for the youths of Meghalaya in both the Courses. Therefore, we demand that the Institute should take appropriate action to reserved seats for the local indigenous youths of Meghalaya from the session 2024 onwards and not based on the merit List of All India NEET examination,” he said.
The HYC also demanded the institute to amend the Recruitment Rules (RRs) vide advertisement dated October 17, 2023, which was for the recruitment to the post of Store Keeper.
“by putting an essential condition of “Possessing Diploma/Degree in Materials Management / Warehousing Management / Purchasing /Logistics/ Public Procurement from recognised University/ Institute”…is an indication of the management’s attempt to deny especially the local indigenous candidates who are having years of experience in service in the related field to apply for the same,” Synrem said.
“Even Institutes like AIIMS, New Delhi does not provide for such a stringent condition but recognised the importance of experiences in the related field for such an appointment. Therefore, we demand that action be taken to amend the above stated RRs in line with AIIMS, New Delhi and to stop any further appointment until corrective measures are put in place,” he added.
The HYC has also asked the NEIGRIHMS authority to take steps to appoint local indigenous serving nurses, who has the experiences and qualifications to be appointed in the vacant posts or a one-time absorption policy should be implemented to absorb all those Nurses who have been employed on contractual basis for a considerable period of time in the Institute.
It said as per information about 40 to 50 persons who have been appointed as Nursing Officers during the last recruitment drive through NORCET have either not joined/reported for duty or have resigned from the posts.
“Any attempt to fill up the vacant Posts from the eligible List of the recently concluded NORCET will not be acceptable to us as we had made our stand clear during the last meetings with you. Efforts should be made to do the recruitment process by NEIGRIHMS itself using OMR methods for a swift and smooth process,” the HYC said in the memorandum.
Stating that the institute is located within the jurisdiction of the KHADC, Synrem said it is imperative that any Non-tribal entity providing any kind of services to NEIGRIHMS must have a valid Trading Licence from KHADC.
“It is learnt that recently the Tenders for procurement/purchase, etc.floated by Store & Procurement Section, NEIGRIHMS does not have a provision for insisting on a Trading Licence from KHADC. This is completely unacceptable and the person/persons responsible for this non-insistence on Trading Licence from KHADC should be taken to task and necessary action be taken by the Institute. We reiterate the fact and our stand that NEIGRIHMS is an Autonomous Institute situated in the Tribal Area of Meghalaya with an objective to serve the people of the Region and the State of Meghalaya in particular. Hence opportunities should be given to the local indigenous population to get employment as well as for studies in different courses offered by the Institute,” he stated.