SHILLONG, MAY 8: Four legislators of the opposition Voice of the People Party (VPP) have decided to submit a letter to the state government on May 12, demanding the immediate putting on hold the job recruitment process pending the review of the state reservation policy.
Informing this on Monday, the party has also appealed to all concerned citizens to come out in large numbers as a mark of support to the said demand.
VPP spokesperson Dr Batskhem Myrboh said the party in the past had submitted a letter to the Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma requesting him to convene a special session of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly to discuss the pros and cons of the job reservation policy as well as implementation of the roster system “but sadly event today we have not received any communication from the government in this regard”.
“Therefore, the party is left with no option but to decide to go and submit a letter to the government asking it to stop the recruitment process as long as the job reservation policy is not yet reviewed or implementation of the roster system is not yet in place,” he said while adding that “the party believes that the continuing recruitment to different bodies in the state is in total disregard to the interest of the youth.”
“And therefore, we appeal to the public to come and support the party MLAs led by Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit when they are going to submit the letter by being present around the secretariat to show that they are supporting the step taken by the party,” Dr Myrboh said.
Appealing to the public to maintain peace and order, the VPP spokesperson said, “However, when they (public) come to show their support to the party and to our MLAs, we appeal to the public to maintain peace, calm and respect law and order and not to create any disturbances.”
According to him, the party will not be responsible for any untoward incidents.
When asked, the VPP leader said that approaching the court is not always the first step.
“The first step is to dialogue with the government as we have learnt in the recent past that the court had left the matter to the legislature and the executive to decide on the matter. Therefore, the first step is to engage with the government as a responsible opposition, not to go to the court but to get the matter resolved at the earliest,” he added.
He however said that the MLAs of the party would be sitting in the coming days to decide on the best step to put pressure on the government.
On the government’s stand to focus on the roster system rather than reviewing the reservation policy, Dr Myrboh said, “The government is saying that it is firm on not reviewing the job reservation policy and they are committed to go ahead in implementing the roster system. I would say at the same time that this kind of expression is in conflict with their own statement saying that they would convene an internal meeting of the government, and then they would convene a meeting of all MDA partners and finally the all-party meeting. If the government is not committed to re-examine the matter it means that the government is lying to the people that they would be calling the meetings at different levels…but I think the government is not having that kind of an intention and we believe the government would also apply the logical mind to head the matter engaged with various stakeholders and various sections of the society and get the matter resolved for the best interest of the state.”
To another query, the VPP spokesman referred to the recent judgment of the Supreme Court and said, “The Supreme Court itself has removed that 50% upper limit where another 10% is reserved and therefore reservation now is 60%. Moreover, when you talked about the reservation policy that 50% which the Supreme Court upheld before was applicable in other parts of India.”
Reminding that Meghalaya is a tribal state under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, Dr Myrboh said, “Therefore, when you see the application of laws, the government of India and even the Supreme Court is sensitive to these regions and therefore, this concerns which the pressure groups they have that we might lose the 30% surplus that is beyond and above 50% I think it is unfounded. The matter has come before the Meghalaya High Court a number of times with regards to the job reservation policy, the Meghalaya High Court is very much aware that the reservation policy in Meghalaya is more and above the 50% but it has not stated anything and therefore, we can safely conclude that this concern made by the pressure groups it is misapplication of the mind.”
By Our Reporter
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