SHILLONG: The division bench of the High Court of Meghalaya which took up the case of recruitment of nurses has asked the state government to complete the entire process by December 11.
The bench comprising Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice V. P Vaish said there is a dearth of nursing staff in Meghalaya which had been one of the areas of deficiencies of health care services, as noticed in suo motu PIL of 2016 pending in the court.
It was indicated in the PIL earlier that the lack of proper work force was one of the fundamental areas of deficiencies to be rectified by the government.
In this context, the court said it had fixed a timeline for completion of the process of recruitment of nurses by October 31 and the government was supposed to adhere to the order.
The court said that looking into the excessive number of candidates who have cleared the written examination and the calendar for interview, as said to have been notified on October 17 is approved, the time for completion of the entire process is extended until December 11.Following the order of the case on the matter on Monday, the joint secretary, health and family welfare department has filed his detailed affidavit and pointed out that earlier, the dates of interview were fixed on October 16, 17 and 18, but were rescheduled from October 23 to November 30. The joint secretary also regretted for fixing the interview beyond October 31 without taking up the matter with the court.
However, the court cautioned that repetition of any such act may lead to stern action.
Health care
The court while taking up the PIL in a separate hearing on Tuesday said that it appears that several areas of deficiencies in health care services are now being attended at with seriousness by the authorities concerned, however, there are certain areas which require more effort so as to bring about concrete results.
