Nursing exams row
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Oct 7: The successful candidates of staff nurse and auxiliary nurse midwife examination, conducted by the Meghalaya Medical Services Recruitment Board (MMSRB), on Monday urged the Health department to go ahead with the recruitment process.
Talking to reporters at the Shillong Press Club, Marybahun Marbaniang, who is one of the successful candidates, appealed to the government not to delay or postpone the process.
She said it was through hard work that they cleared the examination which was fair, transparent, and competitive.
Edilfield Marbaniang, another successful candidate, said there should not be any doubt in the recruitment process. He said the Health Department had established a Grievance Cell for the disgruntled candidates to address their concerns.
Shemphang Wankhar, yet another successful candidate, recalled that during a recruitment process in 2021, the marks obtained by only the shortlisted candidates were displayed. “But this time round, the marks of all the candidates who had appeared were displayed,” Wankhar stated.
Stating that the results of the recruitment process in 2021 were declared after one year, he said for the first time the results were declared within one week after the conduct of the written examination this time around.
According to the candidates, they got to carry home the question papers which was never allowed before and there was videography of the candidates who appeared for the examination. They further stated that the candidates were selected based on merit.
Earlier, the MMSRB had dismissed the allegations of irregularities in the recruitment process.
MMSRB Member Secretary Dr L Mylliem Umlong had stated that the recruitment process was conducted to fill up 164 vacant posts of staff nurses and 78 posts of ANMs. Altogether 5,603 applications were received for the posts of staff nurses and 706 for ANMs. After completing the due process, the admit cards were issued to the candidates.
Dr Umlong stated that in compliance with an Office Memorandum issued in 2023, the verification of documents was not conducted prior to the written examination.
She said the candidates were shortlisted based purely on their performance in the written test. A total of 495 candidates were selected for the posts of staff nurses and 263 for ANMs.
“At this stage, no document verification was conducted before the exam, as per the guidelines,” Dr Umlong had then stated, mentioning that the final selection will be based on the verification of documents after the declaration of the examination results.
The MMSRB also addressed concerns that the initial list of shortlisted candidates was not categorized according to the state reservation policy.