541 vacancies of nurses to be filled shortly

SHILLONG: As many as 541 vacancies of nurses will be filled up by the health department by conducting the tests soon even as the state government ruled out any direct appointment of  qualified bonded General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) candidates.
Health Minister AL Hek told reporters on Wednesday that files have been cleared to fill up as many as 261 vacancies in GNM, while the vacancies for Auxiliary Nurse Midwifery will be 280.
“The tests for both GNM and ANM will be open to all those who are qualified”, Hek said.
Earlier on June 27 , expressing displeasure over the move of the government to conduct fresh examinations, a delegation of bonded GNM nurses met the Health Minister to appoint them directly as done in the past.
The bonded GNM nurses  who were in different batches from 2010 to 2012  said that  earlier the GNM passed out students were appointed directly by the health department against the sanctioned/vacant posts . Hence they wanted the government to apply the same yardstick  for other batches. However, the Health Minister maintained the direct recruitment of nurses was done by the department without the knowledge of the government in the past and hence an inquiry was conducted to probe the matter and to fix responsibility.
The department had also terminated the bonds signed by the GNM candidates.
In this context, he ruled out direct recruitment and added that the bond signed by the GNM candidates was conditional and hence it was not binding on the part of the government to effect appointments.