SHILLONG, JUL 13: The Khasi Students’ Union has warned that it will resume agitation and resort to “extreme measures” if NEIGRIHMS proceeds with its upcoming recruitment without incorporating the union’s demands on reservation and staff ratio.
KSU General Secretary Reuben Najiar said on Monday that the union has written to the NEIGRIHMS Director to honour an agreement reached in May last year.”
Regarding the issue of recruitment in NEIGRIHMS again we have submitted a letter to the Director of NEIGRIHMS citing that to honour the meeting we had on May 5, 2025,” Najiar said.
He recalled that on May 1 last year, KSU held a five-day sit-in demonstration demanding “male to female ratio as done in other states, the reservation for indigenous tribals and other various issues.”
Following the protest, the state government intervened and facilitated talks.
“After the sit-in-demonstration, it was the intervention of the state government that has called us for a meeting to come to the table and discuss and have a meaningful dialogue to solve this issue,” Najiar said.
According to KSU, the meeting was chaired by then cabinet minister Paul Lyngdoh and attended by NEIGRIHMS officials and state officials including the commissioner & secretary, deputy commissioner and SP.
“After the meeting… we have come to a conclusion that NEIGRIHMS will not go ahead with the recruitment until and unless these issues be finally resolved,” he said.
Najiar said the government had assured that the matter would be resolved within a month and that a letter would be sent to the ministry.
“At that point of time, we were given an assurance that this issue will be resolved within one month… but unfortunately, it has been more than a year now, no progress has been made,” he said.
The union leader said KSU has repeatedly written to the Health Minister, Chief Secretary and Chief Minister on the issue.
“As a union, we do not want to halt the recruitment process in NEIGRIHMS because we understand that with the growing numbers of patients coming every single day there is also a need for more nurses, so we want to expedite things from our side but it is the false promises made by the state government at that point of time that told us to stop the agitation and we will solve the matter within one month but unfortunately till now there has been no progress,” Najiar said.
KSU said it has information that the NEIGRIHMS Director will place the recruitment matter before the governing council soon, without addressing its demands.
“We got a report that the Director of NEIGRIHMS will be having a governing council soon and in this governing council, he is going to discard all the demands put forth by the union and will go ahead with the recruitment process as it is,” he said.
Najiar warned of the consequences if recruitment proceeds unchanged.
“If they go ahead with the recruitment as it is before without bringing any changes that the union has suggested then again we will see all the male nurses coming to NEIGRIHMS, all the jobs meant for tribals are being taken by people coming from outside the state and the situation in NEIGRIHMS is going to get from bad to worse,” he said.
In its letter to the Director, KSU said it will not allow the governing council meeting until the issues are resolved.
“In our letter to the Director of NEIGRIHMS, we have mentioned specifically that we are not going to allow any meeting of the governing council until and unless these matters are being resolved,” Najiar said.
He added that if NEIGRIHMS does not honour the May 5, 2025 agreement, the union will restart its protest.
“If NEIGRIHMS does not honour the agreement that has been made on May 5, from the union we will again start the agitation, will continue the agitation in NEIGRIHMS and this time around it is not going to be only a sit-in-protest but we are going to take extreme measures as well,” Najiar said.
