SHILLONG, March 27: The Meghalaya State Reservation Policy which came into effect 51 years ago — January 12, 1972, to be precise — is now causing a stir because of the “retrospective” use of the policy by the state government to implement the roster reservation system following the orders of the High Court of Meghalaya on April 5 and 20 last year.
The policy adopted in 1972 paved the way for 40% reservation for Khasis and Jaintias and an equal percentage for Garos with 5% reserved for other Scheduled Tribes.
With the implementation of the reservation roster by the state government vide an office memorandum issued on May 10, 2022 objections are now being raised by various quarters who claim that the roster system is contradictory to the resolution of 1972.
Paragraph 2 of the reservation policy states that: “If sufficient number of suitable candidates for filling up the reserved vacancies is not available from the respective classes in any particular year, then such vacancies will be available to others. But the deficiency in the number of STs and SCs will be carried forward to the next recruitment year and made good in the recruitment of that year, provided that the reservation on account of the deficiency shall not be carried forward for more than one year. After the expiry of the second year, these reservations shall be treated as lapsed. It has also been decided that at no time shall the number of normal reserved vacancies and the carry forward vacancies together exceed 90% of the total number of vacancies in that year”.
The VPP and pressure groups claim that last year’s office memorandum does not have any statute which authorises to prepare the reservation roster to be effective “retrospectively”.
They also claim that the 1972 resolution clearly specifies that after the expiry of the second year, these reservations shall be treated as lapsed in case of non-filling of reserved category posts in any recruitment year, which means that deserving candidates may be deprived of jobs leading to unnecessary litigations.
Highlighting these concerns, VPP legislator Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit on Monday urged the state government to put on hold the implementation of roster system pending a review of the reservation policy.
“We have a problem with the reservation policy, not with the roster system. We feel that it is an urgent need to put on hold the implementation of the roster system retrospectively. Let the government come out first with a better (reservation) policy since we do not want to discriminate anyone,” Basaiawmoit said in the Assembly on Monday. According to him, the reservation policy has been changed eight to ten times through office memos.
He pointed out that there is no provision for the reservation of PwDs or differently-abled persons but changes have been made to allow people from outside the state to avail the benefit.
“I feel that if the leaders from both communities could come together for the formation of the state, why the present leadership from both communities cannot sit together, discuss and come up with a better policy. We will not allow the vested interests and political activists to vitiate the atmosphere further,” Basaiawmoit said.
He said as they failed to raise the issue of roster system in the Assembly, it has set off a discussion in the state.
He also said that a leader from a leading political party had certain observation and by which, discouraged the VPP to raise the issue on the grounds that it will amount to opposition to the decision of the judiciary.
“I would like to express that we don’t have any intention or ill feeling against any particular community when we decided to raise this issue. We know that we are dealing with a highly-sensitive issue. Therefore, we understand that we have to be very careful and deal with it with utmost care,” the VPP legislator said.
He made it clear that they do not want to hurt the sentiments of any community or take away its rights.
“At the same time, we don’t want that all rights will be compromised,” Basaiawmoit said.
He further stated that the VPP does not believe in the politics of hatred or communal politics unlike those parties which squarely blamed the leader belonging to one particular community for all the wrongdoings of the government even after having partnered with them in the entire term.
“The Deputy Chief Minister had rightly responded that after March 2, they will come to us and we will make them sit on the roof of the bus. This is exactly what they have done,” Basaiawmoit said.
Meanwhile, he observed that the decision of the statehood leaders to fix the reservation policy – 40 for the Khasis, 40 for the Garos and 20 for others – were done thoughtlessly and hurriedly.
He felt that the Khasi leaders agreed to this arrangement quickly due to the fear that their statehood dream might not materialise. They overlooked the difference in the sizes of populations, he added.
Referring to the gap in terms of the populations between the Khasis and the Garos, Basaiawmoit said the population of the Khasis in 1971 was 4,57,064 while it was 3,20,613 of the Garos.
“And if you convert it to percentage, the Khasis constitute up to 45% and the Garo community constitutes 30% only,” he said.
In his response, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said people are free to challenge the recent order of the High Court of Meghalaya wherein it batted for the implementation of the roster system.
He said it is a mandatory rule to have a roster system in place for the implementation of the state reservation policy. The roster system was not implemented in the state for the past 50 years and now it is being implemented based on the order passed by the High Court, he added.
He said the members are free to challenge the court order. “They can always challenge the order,” Sangma said.
