Nagaland MP flags staff shortages in DD, AIR

Dimapur: Nagaland’s Lok Sabha MP S Supongmeren Jamir raised concerns in Parliament on Wednesday over severe staff shortages in central broadcasting institutions in the state.

Speaking under Rule 377, Jamir said long-standing recruitment issues have disadvantaged eligible candidates from Nagaland in the SSC examinations.


He said, according to the Employment News/Rozgar Samachar notification dated March 23, 2013, the SSC had advertised 15 vacancies for programme executives and transmission executives (production assistants) in Doordarshan and All India Radio in Nagaland. However, no candidate from the state qualified, primarily due to the Hindi Paper-II requirement, which posed a major barrier for aspirants.

Jamir said out of 144 sanctioned posts in Doordarshan Kendra, Kohima, 89 remain vacant; in the programme section of All India Radio, Kohima, 64 of 79 posts are vacant; in the administrative section, 56 of 90 posts are vacant; and in the engineering section, 50 of 91 posts are lying vacant.

He said such large-scale vacancies are severely affecting the functioning and outreach of public broadcasting services in Nagaland, which play a vital role in information dissemination, cultural preservation, and regional representation.

The MP urged the ministry concerned to launch a special recruitment drive for Nagaland, with relaxation of the Hindi requirement, and to conduct Paper I and II in English to ensure equal opportunity for qualified local youth.

Jamir said recruitment policies must be inclusive and sensitive to the linguistic realities of the northeastern region, and that deserving candidates should not be denied opportunities due to language barriers unrelated to job performance.