Tura, Oct 19: Residents of South West Garo Hills (SWGH) held a meeting this morning following the declaration of results of the District Selection Committee (DSC) for advertisements put up in the year 2018. Interestingly only one aspirant from the district got through leading residents calling the entire process biased.
The results of the 10 posts of LDA that were undertaken through the DSC were declared on Oct 17 following which questions began to be raised. The meeting today saw the presence of various residents and NGOs of the area.
“What has been done is completely against norms and a violation of the government order of Jun 14, 2023. It states that while selecting candidates’ preference should be given to local candidates residing permanently in the district in which the vacancy occurs. In other words in Garo Hills, the whole combined reservation of 80% will be available to Garos in the absence of any interested candidates belonging to Khasi Jantia community,” informed Ampati resident Uttora Sangma.
The Congress working president for WGH came down heavily on both the deputy commissioner and the Member Secretary of DSC for what she called a failure on their part to follow government instructions and invited candidates from WGH instead.
“They rejected the local candidates while declaring the ones from Tura to be the best. This is despite the locals passing the interview conducted on Jul 22 this year. Only 28 candidates came out successful out of the 205 that applied in the viva voce. Interestingly, the results were declared the same day,” added Uttora.
Of the eight selected under the Garo quota, all that got through were from WGH. One of those selected apparently happens to be the brother of the project director of the district.
“The public of Ampati have decided to protest against the result and to strictly adhere to the government order passed under the job reservation policy and the registration of roster system. We will continue if our demand for redoing the entire process is taken up and preference given to candidates from SWGH,” added BM Marak, chairman of UGPF, SWGH.
The protestors have further alleged that upon checking they found that in all departments in the district, job reservation policy was not followed.
“The rights of the youth of SWGH are being deprived. On humanitarian grounds, today’s meeting was cancelled on request of the official of the concerned department. If the result is not revoked and fresh written examination is not held we will continue protesting. It may prompt the people of this area to move judiciously in the court for legal justice. We have postponed the meeting in the hope that our grievances will be heard,” added Marak.