Dimapur, November 16: The ACAUT Nagaland has described it as ‘terrible’ for NPF president Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu to justify backdoor appointment by saying that “there is nothing wrong with it…and the decision of the government in this matter is fully justified.”
“It gets horrible when the NPF President refuses to use the term ‘backdoor appointment’ saying ‘it is not backdoor appointment’ and instead uses the deceptive term ‘contract employees’ in his press rejoinder thereby taking liberty with the truth for political mileage,” the media cell of ACAUT said in a release on Wednesday.
The ACAUT on November 11 made public a letter purportedly written by Dr Shurhozelie to Chief Minister TR Zeliang and the entire State Cabinet on March 28, 2016 not to tinker with the existing controversial Office Memorandum (OM-2008) which regularises services of contract/ad hoc employees after completion of three years in service.
The contents of the letter were carried in this daily along with other local dailies on November 12. However, Dr Shurhozelie issued his rejoinder to ACAUT’s revelation to Nagaland Post newspaper but not to this daily.
The ACAUT release today said “his attempt to sell the so-called Eligibility Test, now presently employed by the departments to test the ‘suitability of candidates’ for regularization purpose is sickening.” Pointing out that not too long back, one of his ministers Yitachu claimed that Nagaland has 70,000 excess employees, out of the 140,000 government employees, the ACAUT noted that his party government had openly declared that 65% of State fund is spent on employees’ salary.
“In the past 5-6 years his government appointed approx. 40,000 employees, all through backdoor- that is, without advertisement or interview, and bypassing the ‘lame-duck’ NPSC as well,” it further alleged, adding the NPF president knows too well that this figure includes the sons, daughters, and relatives of his party men, ministers, MLAs and his bureaucrats.
It opined that as the torch-bearer of regionalism, Dr Shurhozelie could have banged his fist on the table and put a stop to such nepotism and favouritism, of which he was only too vocal against not long time ago. “The latest decision of the his Cabinet to regularize all the contract or backdoor employees who have completed 3 years of service, thanks to his letter, will not only dim the lives of tens of thousands of young people but also put a full stop to all developmental works in the state,” the ACAUT said.
It reminded Dr Shurhozelie that the court had ruled that appointments made purely on personal or political considerations or arbitrarily may mean that “those who come to be appointed by such arbitrary procedure can hardly complain if the termination of their appointment is equally arbitrary. Those who come by the back-door have to go by the same door (The State of UP & Ors v UP State Law officers Association & Ors).”
Making its clear stand known, the ACAUT Nagaland said now it is up to Dr Shurhozelie to deal with his own conscience while asserting that it will not engage the NPF patriarch anymore on this subject.
