SHILLONG
Former Judge of Madhya Pradesh High Court Justice (Retired) Mool Chand Garg has been appointed as chairman of the Expert Committee for reviewing the state reservation policy.
The names of the five members of the Expert Committee were approved by the state Cabinet chaired by the Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Friday.
Former Judge of Allahabad High Court Justice (Retired) Dr Satish Chandra was also appointed as an expert member in Constitutional law. Justice Chandra is also former president of the Custom, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal.
The other three expert members are Prof D V Kumar from Department of Sociology, NEHU, Shillong as expert member in Sociology, Prof Chander Shekhar from Department of Fertility and Social Demography, Indian Institute of Population Sciences (deemed to be University), Mumbai as expert member in population studies and Prof Subhadip Mukherjee, Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Policy in IIM, Shillong as expert member in Economics.
Law Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh said that the terms of reference of the Expert Committee will be to study the reservation policy and recommend modifications, if necessary and to undertake wide ranging consultations with all stakeholders and visit various locations of the state to solicit the views of all stakeholders.
“The timeframe to be given to this committee will be 12 months to complete its task,” she said.
Asked, Lyngdoh said, “Once you announce the constitution of this committee then all political parties will have to step up and NGOs, civil society and everybody will be called by the expert committee. Their terms of reference are very clear. They will look at these suggestions, views, and opinions of stakeholders across the state and accordingly submit these suggestions and views to the state government for further action.”
She however said that the government has nothing to say to people, who want to participate in giving their views and suggestions to the expert committee.
Further, the minister also announced that the committee of political parties on reservation policy will cease to operate following the constitution of the expert committee.
“The political committee set up for the purpose was inadequate in terms of expertise. We have said we are not experts on this matter so we are bringing in the experts so, yes, that will cease to operate,” she said.
VPP SATISFIED
The Voice of the People Party (VPP) has expressed satisfaction over the Cabinet’s approval of the Expert Committee.
Party spokesperson Batskhem Myrboh thanked the public for their support to the issue of overhauling the reservation policy.
“This proves that if the voice of the people is strong nothing is difficult to achieve,” Myrboh said adding that all should stand united.
According to him the issue of the reservation policy is a sensitive subject and the presence of members who are non-indigenous is to avoid controversy later on.
Myrboh said that when the VPP first took up the issue (of revisiting the reservation policy) other groups had opposed it.
“In case the reservation policy is overhauled, the absence of individuals (in the expert committee), who may be accused of supporting a community is good. But with the presence of neutral members in the committee it will be better,” the VPP spokesperson said.
However, the party has expressed concern over the timeframe allotted to the committee to complete its task.
“According to us the timeframe of 12 months or one year given to the Expert Committee to complete the task is too long. We feel six months is enough,” Myrboh said.