From Our Correspondent
TURA, Aug 4: The process of recruitment for contractual jobs under the Director of Health Services (MI) is marred by discrimination, felt Social activist Junebirth Marak.
In a statement on Sunday, Marak stated that advertisement for a total of 325 positions under DHS (MI) had been announced on Jul 8 with a written test being conducted on Jul 27. 4 days after, Jul 31, the results were announced and a total of 1532 candidates were shortlisted.
A total of 213 jobs were listed for Khasi-Jaintia Hills and another 112 for the Garo Hills region.
“Of the shortlisted candidates, 1393 were selected for the Khasi – Jaintia Hills and only 139 for Garo Hills. In West Garo Hills, 58 were selected (5 non Garos); East Garo Hills 23 selected; South Garo Hills 18 selected; North Garo Hills 23 selected (1 non-Garos); and South West Garo Hills 17 selected candidates (11 non-Garos),” he stated.
“Of the 139 selected candidates from the Garo Hills for 112 posts, these will be further filtered based on practical evaluations, leading to insufficient candidates to fill the vacancies in the Garo Hills. Such disparities have never occurred before and the flawed recruitment process is a direct result of oversight by (Health Minister) Ampareen Lyngdoh,” asserted Marak.
The activist claimed that Garo Hills has been facing such discrimination in all sectors of recruitment but the medical department, he felt was worst since Ram Kumar took charge as the Director of National Health Mission and Ampareen Lyngdoh became the Health Minister.
“We cannot accept such discriminatory results overseen by them,” he added.