The Naga Students Federation, late last night, called off the ‘peaceful democratic protest’ it had planned to hold today at the office of the Nagaland Staff Selection Board. The announcement came very shortly after the Nagaland Government had postponed the personal interview for Combined Staff Recruitment Examination 2022 which was to start today.
The NSF has been demanding reduction in the viva-voce component of the exam from 12.5% to 5% of the total marks.
The written test were conducted on 11 and 12 November 2022. This is the first recruitment examination conducted by NSSB, whose formation is credited to the NSF and Eastern Naga Students’ Federation (ENSF) who were instrumental in aggressively pursuing the Nagaland Government to set up the board.
NSSB had advertised the vacancies on 9 September 2022 and three days later, the NSF expressed its apprehension about the marks allotted for viva-voce stating that this will create room for manipulation in the process of examination. The federation informed the press that it had written an objection letter to the Nagaland Chief Secretary to either scrap the interview system in the NSSB or minimise the percentage allotted for viva-voce.
“The newly formed board is going to recruit more than 500 posts in the state of Nagaland and if there is any manipulation or if there are any anomalies in the process of examination in the first cycle of NSSB then it will create lots of misunderstanding where it may even compel the board to collapse,” the federation stated.
We will ensure that the process of examination is conducted in full swing. However, as far as the viva-voce is concerned, the federation will not allow the interview/viva to be conducted unless and until the demand is fulfilled, the federation had added on 13 September 2022.
The written exams went ahead as scheduled and on 11 November 2022, the first day of the exam, NSF President Kegwayhun Tep exuded hope and confidence stating that based on the assurance given by NSSB “there will not be any room for manipulation. Which is why we are very confident, manipulation or for that matter hide and seek will not arise.”
On 15 April 2023, the Government in its reply to NSF’s persistent demand for change in the Personal Interview marks said that the current recruitment process was started with existing regulations and appealed for it to go on without modification.
The federation had sent a representation to the Chief Secretary just the day before reiterating its demand and asserting its resolution to boycott the interview process.
The State Government’s notification on Monday on the postponement of interviews for CSRE 2022 by three days suggests its optimistism ‘to amicably settle the matter’ with the students.
