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Home Minister Y Patton speaking at the fifteenth session of the 12th State Assembly on March 23. (DIPR)[/caption]
Kohima, March 23 (EMN): In a startling revelation, State Home Minister, Y Patton, today said a total 2078 posts in the Home department were filled up directly without floating advertisement during 2014-17.
Responding to a starred question raised by MLA Mmhonlumo Kikon on the second day of the ongoing budget session with regard to the process of appointment followed, Patton said those posts include 20 UBSI, 21 ABSI, 21 SI (NPTO), 2 MTSI, 17 ASI, 35 Havildars, 22 THC, 39 Clerical and 1901 Constables.
The minister said 308 posts were filled in 2015 through open recruitment for the people of Eastern districts of Nagaland by open advertisement, and 5 clerical posts which were also filled through open recruitment in the same year.
On Kikon's query as to the total number of appointments in the department from 2013 till 2017, the Home minister said 2447 were appointed during this period including 36 UBSI, 19 ABSI, 21 SI (NPTO), 2 MTSI, 32 ASI, 22 THC, 35 Havildars, 2178 constables, 49 clerical and 53 PEP.
Raising a supplementary question, Kikon asked if the posts, which were filled directly without open advertisement can be considered as ‘backdoor appointments’ and if yes, whether the minister concerned or the department has taken any corrective measures in regard to the directive of the Court, Patton said the recruitments were done depending on the vacancy and requirement by the “respective appointing authorities” adding the appointment proposals were not required to be sent to the government for approval or clearance. He also said that after 2015, there has not been any such appointments as some officers had taken the matter to Court.
He cited that as per the P&AR memorandum in 2010, the appointment of lower grade posts in the police department were exempted from seeking clearance of the government, thus appointment of ABSI/UBSI and clerical posts were done from the PHQ while appointment of constables were done at SPs and Commandants level.
Patton alleged that due to such practice, even the "honourable MLA himself has bought one ASI from PHQ without the government’s knowledge.” However, Kikon averted from the allegation and maintained that if direct appointments qualified as ‘backdoor appointments,’ then a judicial inquiry headed by a sitting high court judge should be made.
To this, the Home minister replied that the matter would be looked into and find out why such appointments were made. He also clarified that when he took over the department in 2014, there had already been 1600 excess appointments.
Reacting to the Home minister’s statement, MLA Tokheho sought clarification whether the department is taking any corrective measure to control excess appointments made before he took over the department and whether the government has taken any steps to do away with those excess employees.
“As soon as I took over this department, I have declared ban for one year and because of that, from 1600 the number has come down to 850,” Patton replied. He said the police department was sometimes compelled to go for recruitment for various reasons, one being the non-creation of posts after the formation of Kiphire, Longleng and Peren districts. The minister also pointed out that the department has 1567 vehicles for which, the state government created only 912 posts while in the traffic section there were only 168 posts for the entire state, whereas currently, 486 personnel were manning the traffic as per requirement.
Patton, however, assured that the issue would be discussed with the department and preventive measures to discontinue such appointments would be initiated. He also observed that unless the government take corrective steps as per the P&AR memo, random appointments made by SPs and commandants could not be controlled.
Kikon acknowledged the minister for admitting that there was excess appointments in his department, that these were ‘backdoor appointments’ and that there were lapses in the rule of appointments.
“From the answer given to us (today), about 2000 posts were appointed without proper open recruitment policy. The fair name of Nagaland is being damaged because of backdoor policy,” the MLA stated and further cautioned that if the follow-up assured by the Home minister was not taken, he would file a writ petition in any of the courts to ensure that excess appointments are curbed and ‘backdoor appointment’ is stopped.
He also added that the need for more personnel to man the State cannot be equated with the need for an open recruitment process. He observed that ‘backdoor appointment’ spells corruption and the government has to stand on its pledge for good governance. In this regard, he asserted, any need for more manpower should be done in open and transparent policy, otherwise recruitment policy to address unemployment problem would be the same as encouraging corruption in all appointment matters
In his remark, Chief Minister Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu supplemented the Home minister’s explanation that appointment of non-gazetted posts (Grade-III and IV) were left to the department and as such, ABSI/UBSI posts were done by the department and constables were appointed by the unit commanders as per the need. He said the police department have been facing shortage of manpower as the personnel were distributed to many different duties. Due to this, he said that sometimes on contingency or emergency, some appointments were done without strictly observing appointment procedure.
The chief minister, however, assured the House that ‘such mistakes’ will not be repeated in future.
