SHILLONG, May 26: The UDP on Friday made it clear that the review of the job reservation policy is a part of its manifesto and the party will pursue it with the government but only at the right platform and at the right time.
“I would like to make it very clear that we had mentioned very clearly in our manifesto about a review of the reservation policy,” UDP chief Metbah Lyngdoh said.
“We will discuss this matter with the government since we are also part of the government and we will raise our concerns on what needs to be reviewed in the policy,” he added.
On the VPP demand and the hunger strike of Ardent Basaiawmoit, he said, “I have nothing to say about other political parties but what I would like to say is that the chief minister and the cabinet are there to look into all these.”
The UDP, which held discussions on the roster system, has urged the state government to implement it prospectively and not since 1972 as is being proposed.
Lyngdoh said, “We had a meeting of all the MLAs, MDCs and senior members of the party. This is not the first meeting but a part of a series of meetings that we have had for quite some time where we have deliberated on the issue of roster system.”
Asserting that the issue of the roster system has to be addressed, he said, “The point here is that we have seen a couple of appointments have been issued and the outcome of the interview process led to certain concerns which have to be deliberated and discussed.”
“So because there is concern we feel that the implementation of roster should be prospective from now on and not by maintaining the roster from 1972,” he added.
“As we all know there are no proper records and no roster system was maintained for all these years; so it will be not appropriate for anyone to consider that the records available now are correct,” he said.
Informing that the party had discussed the issue with the CM during the MDA meeting and the all-party meeting, he said, “After seeing the presentation given by the government, we felt that we have to sit down to discuss the roster system.”
Reminding that a committee has been constituted by the chief minister, he said, “We are going to nominate one of our MLAs as our representative in that committee to address all our concerns on the roster system.”
