SHILLONG, July 5: The state government on Wednesday said the process to get the members of the expert committee on reservation policy has hit roadblocks due to non-cooperation from the political parties. The government needs their suggestions and recommendations to constitute the committee and appoint its members but nobody has come forward, it said.
“There is no status because there are no suggestions or questions. Nothing has come to us. How do we constitute a committee? Who will be the members of the committee?” Cabinet Minister and chairperson of the committee of political parties on reservation roster, Ampareen Lyngdoh told reporters on Wednesday.
Irked with the government’s vapid response, the Voice of the People Party asked the state government to put an end to “the circus on the reservation policy” and come clean on its intent to search for members of the expert committee.
“It is unfortunate that the government makes such a statement. The government has notified that there shall be an expert committee to review the job reservation policy. Further, the search committee has been constituted to recommend names for the expert committee,” VPP spokesperson Batskhem Myrboh told The Shillong Times while adding that it is the job of the expert committee to examine the reservation policy and invite views and suggestions from stakeholders.
“We don’t understand what the government means by submitting the recommendations? Recommendations for what? The government is trying to put the cart before the horse,” he reasoned.
“I believe that in this government there are intelligent people capable enough to make sensible statements. But it seems otherwise,” he said, while asking the government to stop the drama and get down to business.
Myrboh pointed out that the job of the Ampareen-led committee ends with her passing on the recommendation to form an expert committee to which the state government has agreed.
“After the expert committee is formed it is their duty to call for suggestions and recommendations. How can she say that you need the recommendations first and after that the expert committee will be formed?” he questioned.
Earlier, Ampareen had said that it would be difficult to move forward “unless we know what we are going to deal with and the kinds of questions and proposals that we will receive.”
“There have been some press statements from some political parties but those are mere statements. I cannot take what is said in the media. I have to understand it. There was an observation in one media report that the word perspective was not written but let me tell you, it is perspective application,” Lyngdoh said.
She said she has been in touch with almost all political parties and she requested them to submit their suggestions early.
“We had a big problem from the High Court when it questioned the application of the reservation policy which is the roster. To my knowledge, all political parties are on board about the application of the roster. Anything else that you want to change has to be communicated in black and white to us so that we may know what needs to be done,” Lyngdoh said.
“If I constitute a committee and it has nothing to study, it becomes a problem. The political party committee, headed by me, will attend to further actions provided it receives the views and suggestions of the political parties,” she added.
