The Combined Technical Association Nagaland (CTAN) and the Nagaland NET/Ph.D Qualified Forum (NNQF) have submitted a petition to the Chief Minister’s Office, urging a fair, transparent, and inclusive process for the recruitment of Assistant Professors and Librarians under the Higher Education Department.
The move comes amid ongoing controversy over the regularisation of Assistant Professors and Librarians, a matter that has drawn widespread criticism over the legal, ethical, and rational basis of the government’s recruitment policy. According to the petition, delays and irregularities in the process risk eroding public trust and have, at large, tarnished the image of the Government of Nagaland.
Highlighting the government’s commitment to youth empowerment and its constitutional responsibility to ensure fairness in public recruitment, the petition outlined several key demands.
The organisations called for the 129 Assistant Professor and Librarian posts created during 2022–2023 to be promptly requisitioned to the Nagaland Public Service Commission (NPSC). The petition warned that any delay could cause anxiety among qualified youth and result in stagnation of academic appointments across state colleges.
CTAN and NNQF urged reconsideration of the current marks weightage system, which heavily emphasises academic records without accounting for variations across universities, educational boards, or time periods. They proposed a new structure allocating 20% for academic records with emphasis on research and publications, 10% for viva-voce, and 70% for the written component.
The petition demanded that marks obtained by candidates in academic records, written exams, and interviews be disclosed, citing the absence of a formal mechanism for transparency in the current system.
The petition was signed by 505 individuals, including research scholars, postgraduate students, social workers, doctors, assistant professors and professors, professionals, engineers, civil service aspirants, entrepreneurs, and undergraduate students. A copy of the petition has also been submitted to the Chief Secretary’s office.
Officials in the Higher Education Department have not yet responded to the petition.
