Counselling fee irks nursing job aspirants

MUKTSAR : The counselling fee of ₹1,000 fixed by Baba Farid University, Faridkot, for the aspirants of staff nurse’s post has irked the candidates as they claim that usually authorities don’t charge any fee for such recruitment.

After the announcement of 40 posts of staff nurse in July this year, the university conducted exam on October 5, and the result was declared the same evening. Now, the university has called all the candidates to attend the counseling for verification of their documents between October 23 and 25, for which each one of them will have to pay ₹1,000.

The candidates claim they have already paid ₹500 while applying for the post and it was an additional burden on their pocket.

Harpreet Kaur, a job aspirant, said, “Normally, the authorities call only those candidates who are in the merit list but they have called all the candidates for the counselling. We have mentioned our academic qualifications and relevant experience at the time of applying for the exam. Now, I will have to pay ₹1,000 even as my chances for getting the job are low.”

Jaspal Singh, father of another candidate, said, “We have already paid the fee before the test..”

Speaking to HT over phone, Baba Farid University V-C Raj Bahadur Singh said, “Earlier, we recruited multi-purpose health workers in which we called candidates as per the merit but later they went to court, demanding that all the candidates should have been invited. So, this time, we called all the aspirants for the counselling. Moreover, we will check experience certificates in the counselling, for which extra marks will be awarded.”

“As we have engaged our staff, so we have decided to charge fee for this ,” he added.