SHILLONG:
The Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) on Monday asked the Conrad K Sangma-led state government to invite the opposition Voice of the People Party (VPP) chief Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit for discussion on the job reservation policy.
“Government should listen to Ardent as he is not raising the voice of the VPP alone but he is raising the voice of the Hynniewtrep people,” HYC president Robertjune Kharjahrin told reporters after visiting Basaiawmoit, who has been fasting for the past seven days to demand the government to review the job reservation policy.
Stating that the Basaiawmoit’s demand is genuine, Kharjahrin said, “It is a demand that the Hynniewtrep community has been demanding for a very long time.”
“In the past also, so many student organizations have taken up this issue. We have seen even in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, the legislator had demanded reviewing the job reservation policy. Even Ampareen Lyngdoh, who is chairman of the committee, also demanded reviewing the job reservation policy and so many legislators in the past who are in the present government have also raised this issue time and again,” he added.
Kharjahrin also added, “So we feel that since the job reservation policy based the allocation of quota on population which means that it is necessary for the policy to be reviewed for every 10 years. We need to review after the census is published.”
Asking the government to take this matter very seriously, the HYC leader said that the legislators of the Khasi-Jaintia Hills should unite on this issue. “…this issue will not benefit party a, b, or c but this issue will go a long way towards the benefit of the Hynniewtrep,” he said.
He further said that the reservation policy was drafted in such a way as to protect the Garo community.
“To be very frank, if you analyse the reservation policy it was drafted in such a way to protect the Garo community. We witnessed so many provisions that if you want to debate on this we are ready to do so,” Kharjahrin added.