During the Zero Discussion on the second day of the Sixth Session of the 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA), MLA Dr. Tseilhoutuo Rhutso highlighted concerns on the absence of a common official language of Nagaland and the recruitment to GDS in the postal service which Nagas are losing the opportunity for employment.
With the recruitment process in the postal service conducted online requiring minimum qualification of class 10 plus, the MLA informed that there is no exam or interview and candidates are selected on the merit basis of the percentage of their class 10 mark sheet. “Why we are losing the opportunity to get employment in the postal service in the lowest grade called GDS (Gramin Dak Sevak ) is because of language. We do not have any recognised common language and the cabinet through its gazette declared that Hindi and English will be the medium for all communication,” stated the MLA.
Though the state has 17 recognised tribal language, none of the 17 languages have been recognized as a common language of the state, said Dr. Ato, comparing with other Northeast states such as Manipur with Meitei language, Assam with Assamese, Khasi and Garo for Meghalaya, Bengali for Tripura and Mizo for Mizoram. He also mentioned how the state of Arunachal facing similar problems like Nagaland with 23 tribal languages and no recognised common languages.
“And for recruitment to GDS, the state like assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram have made their respective common language as a necessity for applying for the said job. And only those who know their common language can apply for the job vacancy within their respective states whereas for states like Nagaland and Arunachal with multiple tribal languages without any common language and having English and Hindi as common language is giving open opportunity for others. The reality is the indigenous candidate of Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh are not able to compete with the percentage marks of other states from mainland India, as such the vacancies of our states are mostly getting filled up by candidates from other states,” stated the MLA.
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He also highlighted that Nagaland have 365 BPOs with sanction post of 1047 GDS. Under this recruitment process, the MLA stated, more than 90% of vacancies are getting filled up by non indigenous Nagas. From January 2023 – December 2024, a total of 361 GDS were advertised for recruitment and 90 percent were filled up by non-locals.
“The state of Arunachal is ahead of us on this recruitment issue. The government of Arunachal Pradesh came up with Gazette notification which constitutionally recognised all the 23 tribal languages for the purpose of third language in the state. The state further pursued this matter with the Ministry of communication, Department of Postal in Delhi, and the ministry issued a circular in favour of the government of Arunachal Pradesh. The circular stated that only indigenous candidate of Arunachal Pradesh can apply for this GDS post vacancy in their state now. The state of Nagaland also needs to follow exactly what the neighbouring states are doing and that GDS vacancies in Nagaland postal division are filled up by indigenous Nagas with the Deputy commissioner as its certifying authority of proficiency in local language in their respective district,” expressed Dr. Rhutso.
He expressed hope that the leader of the House and the chief minister Neiphiu Rio and all the members the house can pass a resolution in this regard to provide better employment opportunity to indigenous Nagas and also to follow the Arunachal model so that opportities are open to the youth for employment under postal service.
Supplementing the issues raised, MLA Achumbemo Kikon also raised similar sentiments. The grey area of this employment is that the person who is appointed in a particular region should know the particular local language and when a person from other states or districts gets posted to a place where he is not familiar with the language, it is not practical, stated Kikon.
The Chief minister of Nagaland and leader of the house Neiphiu Rio acknowledged Dr. Tseilhoutuo Rhutso for bringing the issue of recruitment GDS in the postal services. He also admitted the depravity faced by the State because of the absence of a third language. In this regard, he requested the Speaker of the house to provide a suitable time in the session so that they can formally discuss and pass a requested resolution for the benefit of the people.
