Meritocracy and justice should prevail: CM Rio

NSSB office inaugurated

Morung Express News
Kohima | August 26

The much anticipated Nagaland Staff Selection Board (NSSB) will be fully operational following the inauguration of its office in Kohima by Nagaland Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio this afternoon, August 25.

Although the NSSB was notified on July 31, 2020, the board came into effect only with the appointment of the Chairperson on February 16, 2022. Currently, the board led by the Chairperson, along with 14 other officers and staffs has been working, it was informed.

Terming it a ‘Red Letter Day’, Rio expressed delight that the functioning of the board is put into motion, which was set up following popular demand for an SSB, particularly by the students’ community.

Stating that NSSB is a ‘very important institution,’ Rio said that it comes with huge responsibility as well as struggles and challenges along the way as “the people have great expectations and trust on the board.”

Meritocracy should prevail
Citing the increasing number of educated unemployed youths in the state, Rio asserted that meritocracy should prevail in the selection process, and that justice should prevail for all educated Naga youths.

Entrusted with a pioneer institution, the Chief Minister urged the officers and staff to uphold integrity and commitment, keeping in mind the reputation and legacy of the board. “Leave a benchmark for posterity and your successors towards establishing a prestigious and reliable institution,” he advised.

While assuring the government’s support in all possible ways, he put forth 8-point takeaways for the board (see box).
Ensure no room for errors

Chief Secretary, J Alam said that the NSSB though in its nascent stage is a pioneer institution which needs to be nurtured to live up to its promises as “people are looking up to this institution.”

He maintained that things should be done “right and systematically” with no room for errors or mistakes. Emphasising on the constitutional mandate of equal opportunity to all, Alam insisted that the process for selection should be done in a fair and democratic way to give fair chance to everybody.

Stating that the government has tried its best to support and facilitate setting up of the board, Alam expressed hope that all educated people will be put in place through the board.

Also speaking, Chairman of the Board, Sedevikho Khro said the board has been entrusted with a huge responsibility. The officers have been able to compile whatever is necessary in the last 2-3 months, he informed.

Khro assured that advertisements will soon be coming out. And although the youth have waited for so long, he reasoned “since it’s a new board and the youth have waited for so long, there can be no fault, error, glitches or discrepancies.”

He said things should be done after careful review, lest the board be blamed for any errors that might occur. Assuring its commitment for ‘free and fair’ functioning, Khro said “we want to see our youth excel and be contributors to society.’

NSSB Secretary-cum-Controller, B Henok Buchem also informed that various posts under State Government Departments for recruitment will be advertised very soon. 

“Being a newly established and nascent department, we are mindful of the immense responsibility bestowed upon us by the state government and the expectations from the people of our state,” he said. 

He also assured of its unwavering commitment and dedication to fulfil its assigned responsibilities with utmost integrity and transparency in a time bound manner.

8 point takeaways for NSSB

•    NSSB should provide a just and fair opportunities to all candidates and while giving advertisement NSSB should ensure that all policies laid down by the government are followed.
•    NSSB should conduct examinations and interviews in the shortest possible time so as to avoid public criticism and also fulfil the needs of various departments in time.
•    While scrutinising the applications of candidates proper care should be taken to ensure that the conditions mentioned in the advertisement are fully kept and incomplete applications and non-eligible candidates are removed.
•    NSSB must strictly follow the relevant service rules and a very fair method of selection process has to be done both in the written and interview process.
•    Care must be taken to ensure that recommendations are made strictly as per the number of posts and the reservation policy of the state especially for the tribes in eastern Nagaland should be strictly followed.
•    Today modern scientific methods of checking are available and NSSB must utilise the latest state of art electronic technology to avoid mistakes and ensure that there is no public criticism.
•    NSSB must ensure that all the examination fees are collected through online process as other modes of fee collections such as bank drafts, postal orders, treasury challans etc are slowly getting outdated.
•    NSSB should keep itself fully informed of the government policies and instructions so as to avoid legal litigations.
•    NSSB has to ascertain well in advance the number of posts for which recruitment is to be made from various departments.
• Maintaining the safe custody of examination materials, both before and after the examination and maintaining confidentiality will be importance, since proper record keeping is going to be very important, it is advisable to maintain records both in electronic and physical form.
• NSSB should make every effort to ensure that the normal examination process which includes inviting applications by means of advertisements, scrutinising applications, received in response to advertisements, getting question papers ready, conducting of competitive examination for the candidates, selection and preparation of merit list of the successful candidates, recommending to the departments concerned names of selected candidates etc are followed properly so that efficiency, transparency and accountability in governance is achieved for the benefit of all citizens.

Source: https://morungexpress.com/meritocracy-and-justice-should-prevail-cm-rio