NSF says Nagaland government has assured termination of eight employees allegedly appointed outside NPSC purview by this week.
KOHIMA — The Naga Students' Federation (NSF) on Monday said the state government has assured it that eight employees allegedly appointed to Nagaland Public Service Commission (NPSC) posts outside the commission’s purview would be terminated by this week.
The assurance came during a meeting between the NSF delegation and the Cabinet Sub-Committee at the Deputy Chief Minister’s chamber in the Secretariat.
Addressing a press conference after the meeting, NSF president Mteisuding said the sub-committee had assured the federation that appointments found to be illegal across various departments would be terminated and that termination orders would be issued by the end of the week.
Describing the meeting as “quite positive,” Mteisuding said the NSF would take to the streets and continue its fight for justice if the government failed to fulfil its assurances.
The meeting was chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Y Patton and attended by Minister G Kaito Aye, Advisor Dr Kekhrielhoulie Yhome, Principal Secretary of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (P&AR), and officials from the concerned departments.
Also read: NSF-flagged appointments: Cabinet panel recommends termination in some cases
NSF vice president Vimeyiekho Vitso said the federation had identified 109 allegedly illegal appointments across 16 departments.
Of these, 13 were NPSC posts filled between 2018 and 2021, while 96 were posts under the Nagaland Staff Selection Board (NSSB) filled between 2019 and 2023.
He said the appointments were in violation of office memorandums and the regulations governing the NPSC and NSSB.
Of the 109 appointments flagged by the NSF, four Group C employees recruited outside the NPSC category had either been terminated or resigned.
These included an expert weaver and a distillation assistant in the Industries and Commerce department, an LDA in the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, and an LDA in the Nagaland State Transport department.
Among the NPSC-category posts, three employees had been terminated and one had resigned.
The cases included junior engineers in the PHED and an assistant station superintendent in Nagaland State Transport.
Vitso said the federation was informed that some of the appointments had been regularised by the government on the grounds that the individuals were serving as work-charged employees and were covered under the existing regularisation policy. Some appointments under the NSSB were also reportedly made on compassionate grounds.
He said seven appointments had been regularised in the Agriculture and Urban Development departments, while one appointment had been made on compassionate grounds in the Industries and Commerce department.
Seven appointments in the Agriculture department were made through the NSSB under Rule 3, Clause 3, he added.
Another appointment was made in the Works and Housing department to the next of kin of a victim of the Oting incident. Three Group D appointments in the Food and Civil Supplies department and PHED were also made with government approval and subsequently regularised, he said.
The NSF will examine these cases to verify whether the appointments meet the criteria cited by the government and assess their merits, Vitso said.
He further identified eight individuals who continue to occupy NPSC-category posts despite allegedly being recruited and appointed outside the commission’s purview.
These include two foresters in the Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; a platoon commander and an assistant district commandant in the Home Guards and Civil Defence department; two assistant station superintendents in NST; an information assistant in the Information and Public Relations department; and a stenographer in the Works and Housing department.
Vitso said the Cabinet Sub-Committee had assured the NSF that these eight employees would also be terminated.