TURA/SHILLONG, May 22: The Garo Hills-based A’chik Organisation for Social Welfare (AOSW) has questioned the silence of Garo MLAs on the roster system and urged them to speak up on the issue as it also involves the unemployed youth of Garo Hills.
The AOSW said Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma alone was trying his best to resolve the roster system as well as the issue of job reservation policy. There are altogether 24 MLAs in Garo Hills.
The organisation objected to the call of “Khasi-Jaintia brothers” to review the job reservation policy, saying there is nothing to be reviewed.
“There is nothing defective in the Meghalaya State Reservation Policy, 1972. The word ‘review’ is required only for job recruitment data and the statistics of the roster system of 1972, when the Act was notified in the official gazette. Successive governments failed to maintain the roster in balancing the reserved seats,” the AOSW said.
A detailed examination of the data and statistics would reveal that Garos never filled their 40% reserved seats, it added.
On VPP president Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit’s statement that the job quota policy should be reviewed, the organisation said he was merely trying to mislead his people and that his demands would never be heard in a court of law.
The organisation urged the VPP leader to refrain from taking the matter to the streets and dared him to challenge the court order legally if he is really concerned for the youth.
Meanwhile, the Hynniewtrep Integrated Territorial Organisation (HITO) said the job reservation policy, as per the resolution of January 12, 1972, clearly states that reservation is based on population.
However, the HITO said, it appears that the said reservation policy is not proportionate to the population of Khasi, Jaintia and Garo communities as on date, in as much as the same was based by the then policymaker(s) on their assumption instead of factual Census data.
“As per the 2011 Census, the Khasi and Jaintia communities comprise about 14,11,775 of the total population and the Garo community comprises about 8,21,026 of the total population in the state. The same goes to show that there is a majority of Khasi-Jaintia population. However, the said communities are not adequately represented as per the existing reservation policy,” the HITO said in a statement.
The organisation claimed that the Khasi-Jaintia tribes are being usurped of their rightful entitlements and as a result, the Khasi and Jaintia communities, especially the youth, are made to face serious difficulties in the state without any fault on their part. Further, the welfare, development and uplift of the said communities are being hampered due to lack of adequate representation/ reservation in government jobs, it said.
The HITO also said that the roster system was implemented by way of an office memorandum without proper examination of the population structure and without weighing the pros and cons.
The organisation slammed the Garo Hills-based A’chik Conscious Holistically Integrated Krima for asking the VPP president through a press statement to approach the apex court on the job reservation policy.
“It is quite shocking that the said organisation, despite being led by an advocate herself as general secretary, is being swayed away for the best reasons known and is making such callous statements in media to approach the Apex Court, despite being well aware that we have our very own High Court of Meghalaya, which is the proper forum to approach in case of any legal grievances. Subsequently, if any party is aggrieved with the decision(s) of the Hon’ble High Court of Meghalaya, they can approach the Supreme Court,” the HITO said.
It alleged the press statement was issued without proper appreciation of the facts and with the sole objective to create socio-political unrest and malign some political leaders and others who are rightly seeking a review of the existing job reservation policy.
The HITO said it is evident that there is a genuine cause for the dissatisfaction of the Khasi and Jaintia communities and it is imperative that the existing job reservation policy be reviewed by the government so as to ensure adequate and effective representation of the two communities based on the present population.
