Dr. Asangba Tzüdir
Give Fairness and Transparency a Chance
In November 2015, the Government of Nagaland with a “determination to check the anomalies in recruitment policies” made a disclosure that a new recruitment policy is being worked out with the aim to deliver not just fairness and transparency but also justice. As it stands today, transparency relating to recruitment processes remains contentious. One of which is the appointment of the Graduate Maths teachers resulting in declaration of the same result twice as an outcome of the RTI application and which has brought out certain anomalies in the ‘recruitment process.’
In a latest directive, the department of Personnel & Administrative Reforms (P&AR) has issued a notification asking all departments to make a list of all appointments made from 2014 till March 2018 and to confirm whether the appointments have been made against a sanctioned post. It has come to the notice of the government that many departments are still making backdoor appointments including cases of appointments without sanctioned posts.
The notification also added that the rules of recruitment with regard to qualification, age, reservation of backward tribes and physically challenged are not followed. In this regard, the department concerned has issued certain directives to review the policy made in Grade-III (Non-Gazetted) appointments and to verify if the procedures as per service rules and other relevant rules have been followed for recruitment to the post. Further, it has all asked for scrutiny of documents for educational qualification and age of all the appointees made during the specified period.
How the departments will respond to this directive depends a lot on the political web and their willingness or unwillingness to be transparent, fair and accountable. This calls for a moral responsibility – a responsibility to be fair, just and transparent. A lot of cleansing is required and the current government has taken the onus to do the cleansing.
The current PDA government which had committed to transparency and meritocracy in their election manifesto has come out with this directive. But the period mentioned (2014-March 2018) in the directive is such that, it is not devoid of vindictive politicking of targeting the last government and the appointments made during that period. They could have done justice to themselves by keeping it till date touching the first couple of months of the PDA government and not just till March 2018.
However, it is time to give fairness and transparency a chance in the process of recruitment. Only when the government and the recruiting body are committed to fairness and transparency, justice can be delivered. If not, ‘back door’ or ‘ghost door’ or ‘political door’ will continue to exist. The absence of these moral tenets has led to misuse of power and willful authority and has resulted in wrongfully giving life for the many undeserving. Such practices have led to serious repercussions on our society.
In the evolution of a civilized society, quality and excellence cannot and should not be sacrificed at the altar of mediocrity and corruption in an attempt to give ‘bread’ for the undeserving. Failure to do will have serious consequences on the coming generations.
Through the directive, the P& AR has given a dateline of June 15, 2018 for all the departments to submit the report. Even as this report is awaited, the general public especially the right thinkers should continue to use the RTI tool to ensure that the wrongs committed are set right and also ‘indirectly’ help the present government maintain fairness and transparency in the recruiting process.
(Dr. Asangba Tzudir is a Freelance Research and Editing Consultant. He contributes a weekly guest editorial to The Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
