Shillong, August 28: The Voice of the People’s Party (VPP) which got the State government to agree to review the reservation policy has welcomed the composition of the expert committee devoid of any member from the indigenous community provided the members of the expert committee do their job well.
“When you see the composition of the expert committee constituted by the government to review the reservation policy we saw that there is no name from the indigenous committees and many people may have apprehension about that but from the VPP we take a very clear stand that irrespective of which community the experts come from as long as they do their job we do not have a problem,” said VPP spokesperson Batskhem Myrboh on Monday.
Pointing out that reviewing the State reservation policy is a sensitive matter he said, “There is division between one community and the other and therefore in our thinking we believe that if we have the people from neutral communities who can handle the job well we don’t see there is a problem”.
“We welcome and we will examine, we will see the background of the expert and we will come up with a statement if anything is to be stated but as of now we are accepting the constitution of the expert committee,” he added.
Talking about the suggestions and recommendations on the reservation policy that all the political parties were told to submit, he said, “As and when it is needed we will definitely give our suggestions and recommendations. Let the committee work and let us see. We are ready”.
Leader of Opposition (LO), Ronnie V. Lyngdoh had on Sunday suggested the need to rope in members from the Khasi-Jaintia and Garo communities in the expert committee to review the job reservation policy of 1972.
He had said representation from the three tribes in the expert committee is critical to addressing all concerns pertaining to the job quota policy.
Exactly 75 days after bowing down to surmounting pressure from all corners and announcing that an expert committee would be constituted to review the Meghalaya State Reservation Policy of 1972, the state Cabinet had on Friday finally approved the names for constitution of the five-member expert panel.
The names were shortlisted by the three-member search committee headed by Chief Secretary DP Wahlang.
MDA spokesperson Ampareen Lyngdoh said the expert committee will be headed by Justice (retd) Mool Chand Garg, former Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, as Chairman.
Justice (retd) Dr. Satish Chandra, former Judge of the Allahabad High Court, will be the expert member in Constitutional Law; Prof. DV Kumar, of the Department of Sociology, NEHU, will be the expert member in Sociology; Prof. Chander Shekhar, Department of Fertility and Social Demography, Indian Institute of Population Sciences, Mumbai, will be an expert member in Population Studies while Prof. Subhadip Mukherjee, Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Policy at IIM Shillong, will be the expert member in Economics.