Nagaland: Supongmeren raises recruitment discrimination issue in Parliament

Nagaland’s lone Lok Sabha MP, S. Supongmeren Jamir, today highlighted long-standing recruitment barriers faced by candidates from Nagaland in the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) examinations, particularly in public broadcasting institutions.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha under Rule 377 during the ongoing Parliament session, Jamir referred to the Employment News/Rozgar Samachar notification dated March 23, 2013, where SSC advertised 15 posts for programme executive and transmission executive (production assistant) in Doordarshan and All India Radio, Nagaland.
However, he said no candidates from the state qualified, mainly due to the mandatory Hindi Paper–II, which created a significant barrier for local aspirants.
He highlighted severe staff shortages in public broadcasting institutions in Nagaland: Doordarshan Kendra, Kohima—sanctioned posts (144), in position (55) and vacant posts (89); All India Radio, Kohima programme section—sanctioned (79), in position (15) and vacant (64); administration staff—sanctioned (90), in position (34) and vacant (56); engineering staff—sanctioned (91), in position (41) and vacant (50).
Jamir stressed that massive vacancies severely affected the functioning, outreach, information dissemination, cultural preservation, and regional representation of public broadcasting services in the State.
Therefore, MP urged the ministry to launch a special recruitment drive for Nagaland with relaxation of the Hindi requirement, conducting Paper I and II in English to ensure equal opportunity for qualified local youth.
Jamir reaffirmed that recruitment policies must be inclusive and sensitive to the linguistic realities of the North Eastern region. He said deserving candidates should not be denied opportunities due to language barriers unrelated to job performance.