By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Oct 4: Amid the ongoing MBBS seat allocation issue, the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) has also resolved to take up the pending issue of nurse recruitment at NEIGRIHMS in a meeting with Health Minister Wailadmiki Shylla on Monday.
“We are going to raise the issue on NEIGRIHMS, especially the recruitment of nurses, during our meeting with the Health Minister,” KSU general secretary Donald V Thabah said on Saturday.
The KSU is awaiting a response from the state government on finalising a date for a meeting with Union Health and Family Welfare Minister JP Nadda to address concerns over recruitment and reservation policies at NEIGRIHMS.
On May 5 this year, former Cabinet Minister Paul Lyngdoh had assured that he would lead a delegation to New Delhi and meet Nadda to discuss policy-related issues that are beyond the jurisdiction of NEIGRIHMS’ administration.
The meeting has not materialised yet. NEIGRIHMS temporarily suspended its recruitment process for nursing officer posts after the KSU had intervened.
The KSU is demanding that NEIGRIHMS adopt an 80:20 female-to-male recruitment ratio for nursing officer posts and prioritise employment opportunities for local healthcare professionals.
As and when the KSU meets the Union health minister, it is expected to highlight discrepancies in the allotment of MBBS seats from the central pool under the state quota.
Thabah had stated on Friday that the union, during its meeting with Shylla, would impress upon the state government to immediately correct these discrepancies.
“We do not know whether this is due to the incompetence of health officials or a deliberate blunder. But we are firm in our stand that the irregularities detected must be rectified at any cost,” he had stated.
The KSU called for the scrapping of the Standard Operating Procedures for seat allotment and the removal of the Scheduled Caste category from the list of categories since it does not exist under the State Reservation Policy of 1972.
The student organisation also demanded that the Health Department rectify the allocation of seats under the state quota for Bachelor of Dental Surgery, Bachelor of Physiotherapy, Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery, and Bachelor of Homeopathy Medicine and Surgery.
