By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Nov 27: Three months after its formation, the expert committee constituted to review the Meghalaya State Reservation Policy has only convened once, and it appears that the panel is operating at a very slow pace.
A KHNAM delegation met with Chief Secretary DP Wahlang on Monday to discuss the slow progress and to get an update on the expert committee’s work.
According to Thomas Passah, working president of KHNAM, there has been no progress at all since the formation of the Expert Committee, and the last discussion on reservation policy was held on August 31.
Passah claims that the Chief Secretary informed them during the meeting that an online meeting was held on November 23 while a second one has been scheduled on December 6.
The stakeholders, including political parties and pressure groups, will then be asked to submit their recommendations to the Committee in a third meeting, which will take place in Shillong.
The KHNAM stated that the matter is taking too long, as amending a two-page reservation policy shouldn’t take that long.
“We anticipated that the expert committee would expedite its work, but the Chief Secretary has instructed us to hold off,” Passah stated. Additionally, it was informed that following the completion of its recommendations, the Expert Committee would set up another meeting with the stakeholders.
In addition to its five initial amendments to the reservation policy, the KHNAM on Monday submitted a second amendment proposal that aims to bring the organised and private sectors under the purview of the 1972 policy.
The party proposed allocating eighty per cent of private and organised sector jobs to indigenous people.
“Considering the high rate of unemployment in the state, we understand that the government sector alone will not be able to cater the requirement; therefore, if private sector can be brought in the ambit of the policy, it would help address the unemployment problem,” he stated in justification.
Furthermore, contractors, government-aided institutions, and public undertakings are already included in the reservation policy according to the office memorandum dated June 18, 1973, paragraph 7.2. Thus, we do not see any barriers to the inclusion of the organised and private sectors in the policy,” he added.