KSU wants nod to Khasi, Garo for recruitment examinations

SHILLONG, July 20: The KSU Central Executive Council (CEC) on Thursday sought Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma’s intervention to allow candidates from the state to choose Khasi and Garo as language selection during the process of recruitment in the Department of Post.
In a letter addressed to Sangma, KSU said whenever such recruitments are made in the Department of Post very few indigenous people are recruited as the candidates are to select either English or Hindi.
Nongpluh mentioned that recruitment was recently announced by the North East Meghalaya Postal Circle, under India Post, for various positions, including Branch Post Master, Assistant Branch Post Master, and Gramin Dak Sevak. He said similar recruitment opportunities would be available in the upcoming months.
He pointed out that other states have their own local language as a criterion for selection.
“After your intervention in the matter with Union Minister for Communications, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Khasi and Garo languages were added as one of the languages for selection. However, in the current recruitment process, it has proven to be ineffective, as 80-90 percent of the selected candidates are from other states, with only a handful of local indigenous people being chosen,” the Nongpluh said.
He said the reason behind it is that English and Hindi languages are still available and people from other states can apply. The criterion for selection is only on merit, based only on Class X results and hence, it is making it very difficult for the local indigenous people to compete with people from the plains, he added.
“The knowledge of the terrain is needed. A person from outside the state will not be able to serve that purpose respectfully. Other states and some Northeastern states also have their own language as a criterion for selection. In Assam, the language for selection is Assamese, Bengali and Bodo; it is Mizo in Mizoram and English and Manipuri in Manipur,” he added.