Nienu alleges disparity in appointment of O&M staff under PHED

KOHIMA — Legislator of Nagaland People’s Front (NPF), Kuzholuzo Nienu, has alleged disparity in the appointment of operation and maintenance (O&M) staff under the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) and claimed that 50% of the appointed staff belonged to Sumi community.

Neinu informed the house on the second day of the ongoing 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly on Tuesday. Nienu pointed out that out of 829 total posts, 426 were from Sumi community and the rest of the tribes consisted of 403. He further pointed out that Zunheboto district alone has 147 O&M staff.

He mentioned that district-wise Wokha, Zunheboto, Phek and Mon were given birth at the same time. In comparison, he reasoned that Wokha, Zunheboto and Phek might be having equal or nearly the same amount of population census ratio, while Mon would be higher.

To bolster his claim on the distribution of &M staff, Neinu stated that Phek and Mon have 23 post each, Wokha has 27 while Zunheboto has 147. He also mentioned that Longleng has 10, Kiphire-24, Kohima-21 and Tuensang-170.

The NPF legislator sought clarification from the PHED minister as to what is the need of so many O&M staff in Zunheboto and lesser in other districts.

In his reply, the PHED minister Jacob Zhimomi informed that it is not the final exercise and would do it in phase manner. He stated that the exercise was taken up in compliance with government approval as per requirement in the districts.

“Districts which have been deprived on the basis of recommendation by the divisional department in-charges, they would take necessary action to see that the requirement is accomplished,” Zhimomi said.

He added that the bifurcation of Dimapur district into Chümoukedima and Niuland districts have necessitated bringing about a little priority this time including Zunheboto and some few districts.

“They have been mandated by the work-charged and casual employees commission to maintain the limit of 2000 in the department of Power and PHED department,” the minister said.

He assured to keep those districts as recommended by the district departments, in-charges to take action accordingly.

Zhimomi added that O&M staff are unskilled labourers and no prescribed educational qualifications have been specified for the applicants.

"To maintain fairness and transparency in the recruitment process, a departmental screening committee has been constituted for the same. Furthermore, after the completion of their probation period of two years, they will be subjected to a suitability test," he added.

The minister informed that those posts were not advertised as per P&AR office memorandum NO.AR-3/GEN-201/09 (VOL-I) dt. 3rd October 2022.