Thursday, March 28, 2024
spot_img

Reservation Policy progressive when seen from broader perspective

Date:

Share post:

spot_img
spot_img

By H H Mohrmen

Like other major issues such as the inter-state border dispute, the Reservation Policy also has been a subject of intense debate in the state for many decades now. The Reservation Policy has been a subject of dispute between the state and the public for many decades now. When everything else moves and changes with time, the two issues refuse to die down. Leaders of pressure groups that spearheaded the demand to review the Reservation Policy come and go and in the process change their stripes as well. Yet there seems to be no end to the imbroglio. Currently, the move to review the Policy is being led by a political party.

The need to review
the Policy
One may ask why there is a demand to review the state reservation policy. The reservation policy was made to address the need of the people of Meghalaya then and it has served the state for more than fifty years now. The piece of legislation was challenged in the Court of law and the Court has found some anomalies in the implementation of the Reservation Policy of the State and has provided some suggestions. The very fact that the Court had to intervene is because there is a lacuna in the policy.
When the Roster System was sought to be implemented, some section of the population raised a hue and cry about the its implementation. The claim is that the Roster System is unfair for certain sections of the population in the state. The point is any law adopted has to address the specific objective/s that is intended and it should be relevant to the time.
If the Policy is not addressing the need of the times it becomes a redundant law and hence the need to review it. The law should not only address the needs of the present generation but it needs to address future needs too. The question arises as whether the current policy is just and fair to every section of the population in the state. Let us start by looking at the population scenario in the country now. We are a country of 1.4 billion people right now and the population grows with time.
India is going to be an old country with a young population and in such a situation the population of youth in the state will also increase making job opportunities for the youths a challenging task. So what is the unemployment scenario in the state now? Climate change is also happening and this will also affect the unemployment scenario as people will seek to move to cooler climes.

The government is
responsible to its people
The government must protect the interests of the people of the state. They are supposed to serve the people who elect them to govern the state. The situation that has arisen now is that the Roster System will be affecting the youths of the state. Genuine concerns were also raised that there are court rulings in the different parts of the country on the issue of job reservation which could have an adverse effect on the present Policy, if it is tinkered with. This is a genuine point, but does that mean that the legislature should stop making laws on the Reservation Policy? Where are the grounds for these apprehensions? What is the legislature supposed to do if not to make laws? So when there is discontent on this one piece of law, it is only natural for the public to expect the lawmakers to put their heads together to amend or review the Policy. What is expected of them is to come up with a policy that is fair and just for all.

Apprehensions of judicial intervention
Till today the democratic setup in the country works like a well-oiled machine and the three pillars of democracy work in perfect harmony with one another. The success of our democracy largely depends on how the legislature, the executive, the judiciary and of course the fourth estate respect each other. The organs of democracy serve as a check and balance against each other for the smooth functioning of the democratic process in the country. Of the four pillars of democracy, the legislature is directly responsible to the public, and naturally, the expectations of the citizens of the state from their legislators is to make enlightened laws.
Fears of the court intervention has no grounds if the government’s honest intent is to come up with a Reservation Policy that is fair and just for all sections of the community. Why should we doubt our legislators to come up with a good law which is relevant to the times and addresses the need of all sections of society? If legislators can come up with a new reservation policy that is in the true spirit of the Constitution, where is the room for the court to intervene? The government is now aware of all the court rulings and orders on the subject in the different cases in the country. The only need is to address the reservations the courts had raised and make a good piece of law. Besides, the government has a battery of legal experts at their disposal in the form of the Law Department and the State Law Commission. All that it needs is genuine concern and a noble intention for providing a just and fair policy for every section of the population. The public needs to trust the state’s ruling dispensation too and under the leadership of the government, it will certainly be able to review the policy for the benefit of all the residents of the state.
Can the people of the state at least expect their legislators to come up with a watertight reservation policy without any ambiguity and no loopholes for any court intervention? Or is that too much to expect from our legislators?

A forward-looking
Reservation Policy
As employment is going to be a major issue and in the future jobs will be difficult to come by, the new reservation policy ought to have special protection for the youths of the state, irrespective of their ethnicity or the area they belong to. While reviewing the policy, the government needs to take into consideration factors like the growing population, technological advancement. artificial intelligence in particular, and the effects of climate change. These factors will have some impact on jobs in the future and on the employment scenario in the state.
Indeed, the government is not supposed to be the major employer and in the future, many of the jobs would be in non-government sectors. In this context the question is whether the State Reservation Policy would apply to jobs in the private sectors too. The number of jobs in the private sector even within the state is increasing day by day. The cement industry is a case in point. The Reservation Policy should be all-encompassing and it needs to cater to the needs of all the genuine sections of the population. Reservation should be for genuine residents of the state only. Given the extraordinary growth of population in the country, the policy also needs to come clear on the categorization of a ‘general category’ in the reservation policy. The government should take the Reservation Policy imbroglio as an opportunity to address the genuine needs of the people of the state. The Policy has to look at things from a larger and broader perspective and more importantly, it needs to be forward-looking.
The major thrust should be to ensure that there are no legal loopholes in the policy that could create conflict or give room for court intervention and I hope that is not too much to ask from our legislators. A fair and just reservation policy also requires that it also addresses the need of the deserving members of the society, the differently-abled, the poor, and the weaker sections of the population. The legislators cannot shy away from their responsibility; in fact, a review of the Reservation Policy was one of the issues that the regional parties highlighted in their manifesto in the very recent general elections to the state assembly. This will be an opportunity for the regional parties and all the political parties in the state to fulfill their election promise.

spot_img
spot_img

Related articles

Arunachal was, is, and will remain an integral part of India: MEA

New Delhi, Mar 28:  The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday that China's repetitive claims on...

SP injured in Arunachal’s Longding as crowd pelt stones during scrutiny of nominations

Itanagar, March 28: Superintendent of Police of Arunachal Pradesh's Longding district, Dekio Gumja, was injured after some people...

Aditi Rao Hydari confirms union with Siddharth

Shillong, March 28: Actress Aditi Rao Hydari, who secretly got engaged to actor Siddharth on Wednesday, confirmed their...

India’s core sector industries clock 6.7 percent growth in February

Shillong, March 28: The eight core industries that include sectors such as coal, cement, steel and electricity posted...