SHILLONG:
The Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC), on April 13, warned the state government of an MBoSE-like situation if it failed to resolve the roster issue while demanding that it be implemented with prospective effect, which was also echoed by the Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP).
Speaking to reporters here after submitting a memorandum to the chief secretary DP Wahlang stating the HYC’s demand, president Robertjune Kharjahrin said, “We want to remind the state government that if it fails to address this issue, I am afraid an MBoSE-like situation might happen in the state. Therefore, we request the government to immediately solve this problem either through the cabinet or state assembly or an all-party meeting once and for all.
Several people were killed when police and CRPF personnel opened fire to disperse a mob agitating on the issue of shifting of the Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBoSE) from Garo Hills, in Tura, on September 30, 2005.
HYC wants the roster system to be implemented prospectively from 2022.
He quoted the chief secretary to say that the matter would be placed in the cabinet and expressed hope
that it will consider the HYC’s point of view.
“We have seen that there is a huge misunderstanding now between the Khasi-Jaintia and Garo community,” he said adding that the government should step in and solve this problem because that is what a government is expected to do.
He said while a minister has blamed the court the latter has said it is up to policymakers to fix the cut-off date making the people feel remediless. “The moment this problem is solved this issue will disappear and our youth both from Khasi-Jaintia and Garo communities will start applying for all the jobs,” he asserted.
The memorandum will also be submitted to all ministers and leaders of all political parties for their necessary intervention.
The HYC has demanded that the cut-off date for implementation of the roster system should be from 2022 since the Meghalaya High Court had clearly stated these are policy matters best left to the executive and the legislature.
“This is also because the Supreme Court in so many of the cases had clearly stated that roster should be implemented prospectively not retrospectively,” he said adding that an office memorandum (OM) can be changed in the cabinet itself.
He also informed that the Council also demanded that when it comes to backlog, there should not be any deviation from the policy.
“We have seen some departments now are starting to talk about filling up the backlog posts. What is necessary to understand is that as per the Meghalaya Job Reservation Policy, if there is any category who cannot fill up any posts, that category can be filled up by another category and in the next recruitment year there should be some adjustment but if in that recruitment year that particular category could not fill up that post lapsed. So when it lapsed how can you now start talking about backlog? Of course, if there are one or three posts which do not lapse yet then you deserve to fill up. 1972-1973 posts till 2022 are already lapsed as so many recruitment years have come one after another. When it comes to backlog we would like to see there should not be any deviation from the policy. When the posts are lapsed you cannot talk about backlogs.”
“Thirdly, we have seen in the past two-three weeks that there is a recruitment agency both in East Khasi Hills and West Khasi Hills where they started giving roster separately for Khasi and Jaintia and Garo category but if we go as per the policy it says that in district level category there will be 80 per cent for Khasi-Jaintia Hills and 80 per cent for Garo Hills that is what we are following for the past 50 years. When we have a combined Khasi, Jaintia and Garo category at the district level, where is the question now of giving a particular post for Khasi and Jaintia and a particular post for Garo. So this is illegal because the policy does not allow doing so,” Kharjahrin further added.
HSPDP STAND
HSPDP president K P Pangniang on April 13 said that the roster system should be implemented prospectively.
“Before going to the elections this year, we had included in the manifesto that there must be a review/improvement of the reservation policy. As for the roster system, we want it to be implemented prospectively,” he told reporters.
It may be mentioned that the 55-year-old party has been speaking time and again on the reservation policy as well as on the separate Khasi-Jaintia state.
Pangniang said they are waiting for the arrival of Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma so as to meet him and discuss the various issues especially pertaining to the youth.
Sangma is also the chairman of the coordination committee of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA 2.0)
On the other hand, asked whether a special session of the Assembly should be held to discuss the reservation policy, the HSPDP president preferred to raise issues in the MDA common platform meeting.
“It is still fine if we take it up in the MDA meeting as was done in the case of Meghalaya Gaming Act 2022,” he said.