Filling up vacant posts for ANM nurses
SHILLONG: The Meghalaya Government Nurses Service Associaton (MGNSA) has threatened to take the path of agitation if the State Government failed to comply with their demand to give preference to the bonded nurses while filling up the various vacant posts of the Auxiliary Nursing Midwifery (ANM) nurses.
“The State Government should follow the policy which has been going for the past many years while appointing of the ANMs nurses,” MGNSA general secretary B Thabah said while talking to newsmen here on Thursday.
She said that the decision of the Government to put the bonded and non-bonded nurses on the same board is totally unjustified.
According to her, the bonded ANMs pass through a selection process before they get into the nursing courses. “The non-bonded ANMs have not gone through similar process,” the association said.
As per the convention, MGNSA general secretary said that the bonded nurses do not have to appear for any interview and they are appointed on merit and batch wise basis.
While countering the claim of the Health and Family Welfare Minister AL Hek that the decision of asking the bonded ANMs to appear for both the written test and personal interview was as per Rule 7 of the Meghalaya Nurses’ Service Rules, 2008, Thabah said that the nurses service rules is yet to be approved either by the Cabinet or the State Assembly.
“The Nurses at present is yet to have a full fledge services rules of its own. We have been fighting for this for the past ten years,” MGNSA general secretary said.
She said that the present service rules which is in place is the service rules which was adopted from the other departments.
“We have been demanding that there should be amendment of the service rules which would protect and safeguard the interest of the Government nurses in the State,” Thabah said.
MGNSA general secretary said that the Government had assured that they would constitute a drafting committee which will be equally represented by the members from the nurses association.
“But till date this committee was never constituted. Our main concerned about the service rules is about the method of recruitment. We would want that a clause should be inserted in the service rules about the direct appointment of the bonded nurses,” she said.
He said that senior government official have told them that the amendment of the service rules will not take even a month if the Government is serious on the matter.
Meanwhile, Thabah said also questioned the decision of the Government to appoint a new departmental recruitment committee for recruitment and appointment of staff nurses without detonifying the earlier committee is highly illegal.
MGNSA general secretary said that the Government last year had constituted a departmental committee for appointment for recruitment and appointment of bonded nursing students (staff nurses and ANMs).
Interestingly, she said that the Government had left out members of the nursing committee including principal and vice principal of Government nursing school including matron and assitant matron in the new committee.
‘In their place, they have appointed the new Deputy Director of Health Services (Administration) Dr Aman War as a member of the committee which is highly objectionable. The committee should have got representative from the nursing community,” she said.
MGNSA general secretary also alleged that the non-inclusion of the members of nursing community in the committee paves way for strong suspicions about the intention of the Government to manipulate the whole appointment process at the expense of the bonded ANMs nurses.
According to Thabah, there are more than 300 plus bonded ANMs nurses belonging to the 2008 batch onwards who are awaiting appointment.
“Majority of these bonded nurses are unsure about their future due to alleged manipulation in the appointment process by the people at the top,” she said.
Meanwhile, MGNSA general secretary also demanded that the State Government should adopt the same yardstick like they have done while filling up the vacancies for 360 posts of General Nursing & Midwifery (GNMs) in various district hospitals and health care centres in the State.
“The department had exempted the bonded candidates from appearing the written test. It is totally unacceptable to have two seperate policy for recruitment of the job of similar nature,” Thabah added.
Earlier on June 24, the written examination for the Auxiliary Nursing Midwife (ANM) was called off at the last minute due to alleged manipulation by the office of the DHS (MI).
The post of ANM was advertised on January 17 by the DHS (MI), which was a new procedure to deprive the bonded ANMs aspirants, as per the allegations of the aspirants.
There were many ANM aspirants who had undergone training in State recognized institutions, one being the Ganesh Das School of Nursing and another school of nursing at Rongkhon, Tura, which are also recognized by the Indian Nursing Council.
Many candidates have successfully completed their course since 2008 and they were anticipating appointment from the DHS as was being done until 2007.
The aspirants were assured – both through the advertisement and also verbally – that they would be selected as mentioned in the advertisement that whenever posts are available their employment will be considered by following the usual procedure. The advertisement in this regard was signed by the DHS (MI).
It was revealed by many of the aspirant nurses that till June 23 this year there was a different list put up on the notice board at the DHS office. But strangely a list was put up on Tuesday in which 11 names of the trained ANMs were missing from the list.
This led to a protest by the aspirants who alleged manipulations resulting in the postponement of the written test.
Earlier, during the recent re-assembled session, NPP legislator James K Sangma while expressing that that not a single ANM candidate had been absorbed by the Government since 2008 had advised that if the Government continued to overlook the bonded candidates, it would be wise to do away with the policy of sponsoring candidates since it was a wasteful expenditure.