KHNAM to hold sit-in-demonstration on Aug 19 for demanding doing away with personal interview

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaAugust 16, 2024

The Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) will hold a one-day sit-in-demonstration on August 19, to pressurize the state government to do away with the personal interview for government jobs.

Announcing this decision on Friday, KHNAM working president Thomas Passah said, “The sit-in-demonstration will be held at Malki ground from 10 am to 5 pm of August 19. The protest is to pressurize the state government to consider doing away with the personal interviews for government jobs in the posts falling under Group B, C &D in order to end practice of nepotism and favouritism in the recruitment process.”

“We also urge all citizens including NGOs to extend full support to the demand by joining hand with the party during the protest in order to send a strong message to the state government,” he said. 

Also urging all 60 MLAs to raise this issue during the upcoming Assembly’s autumn session, which will start from August 23, Passah said, “If the 60 MLAs remain silent on this issue it will only show that they too are involved in corruption practices. Therefore, we also urge all 60 MLAs to raise this issue for the benefit of the people of the state and urge the state government to consider the demand.” 

“We will continue to raise this issue till government is ready to do away with the personal interview,”he added.

Asked, Passah informed, “During MDA-I government, we had submitted the central government’s notification and other states because the GOI and 23 states have done away with the personal interview since 2016 and the objective is to prevent nepotism and favouritism and that recruitment be based on merits. However, unfortunately the state government has turn a deaf ear to this demand. We had also sent reminders to the MDA-2 government but again to no avail.” 

Further, the KHNAM leader said that UDP MLA Nujor Sungoh had raised the issue in the Assembly and the Chief Minister in his reply then had cited the advantages and disadvantages of the proposal for doing away with the personal interview. 

“But to us, the CM’s statement in the House was just for formality sake. We had maintained that the conduct of personal interview in government jobs only comes with disadvantages,” he said while adding “Now, we want the chief minister to specify what are the so-called advantages that people get from conducting the personal interview because majority feel that the same are only a waste of time just to pave way for corrupt means of recruitment and that only those who knows people in power will get jobs.”