Shillong, May 8: The Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) on Monday sought the intervention of the NEHU Registrar into alleged lapses in screening procedure by the screening committee for appointment to the post of an associate professor in the department of Journalism and Mass Communication.
In a letter to the Registrar Prof AS Dixit, HYC general secretary Roykupar Synrem said it has come to the knowledge of the Council that a female candidate, Dr Natalie Jo-Anne Diengdoh belonging to the Scheduled Tribe community applied for the post of associate professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication on 15.04.2022 and thereafter submitted attested hardcopies of all her certificates at Establishment II on 16.04.2022.
She again submitted the updated attested hardcopies of her certificates at Establishment II on January 3, 2023.
“(However), on April 14, 2023 her application was rejected by the screening committee. She was given zero (0) marks without any remarks for all criteria…,”Synrem said.
“You are therefore requested to intervene and reconsider her application by referring to the attested hard copies of her credentials submitted at Establishment II. It would be appreciated if the university takes up this case seriously and ensures that justice is done to the deserving member of one of the indigenous communities of the state of Meghalaya,” he stated in the letter.
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Dr Natalie was rejected despite possessing the following: Doctor of Philosophy in Folkloristics, Thesis entitled Representations of Ka Niam Khasi in Mass Media from North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, 2015, Masters of Arts in Journalism & Mass Communication, Sikkim Manipal University of Health, Medical & Technical Science, Shillong, 2008, B Div 64%, National Eligibility Test (Journalism & Mass Communication), University Grants Commission, 2012, Teaching since 2013.
She is currently an assistant professor at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Shillong.
Dr Natalie had authored and published 4 books in the Khasi language and 2 in the English language.
“So far, she had sent three representations – on April 19, 2023 two representations have been successfully submitted at the portal to plead her case and the third representation was sent on the 1st of May 2023 to you at [email protected] and cc to ST Cell at [email protected]. To date there has been no response to her numerous pleas; hence I request that her case be considered as she bears the necessary requirements,” Synrem said.
“She has contributed tremendously to the state through her efforts in cultural conservation in various platforms like books, documentary films, radio productions, paper publications and so on. Since highly qualified applicants with vast experience are available from the Khasi Jaintia Community, we see no reason why they should be deprived of this opportunity to serve the university,” the HYC leader said while adding that so far the department is run by Assistant Professors belonging to other communities only.
