Union says separate reservations of 40% for Khasi-Jaintia people and 40% for Garos should be done away with
SHILLONG, June 13: The Khasi Students’ Union on Thursday proposed a combined reservation of 90% of the posts for the Khasi-Jaintia and Garo communities instead of the existing separate quotas of 40% for the Khasi-Jaintias and 40% for the Garos.
In a petition submitted to the Expert Committee tasked to review the State Reservation Policy (SRP) of 1972, KSU general secretary Donald V Thabah said the reservation will remain as embodied in Resolution No. PER.222/1/132 of January 12, 1972, with a slight modification of the 40:40 ratio.
He said the reservation for the Scheduled Castes and other Scheduled Tribes who were inhabitants of undivided Assam could remain the same at 5%. The remaining 5% can be left in the unreserved category to be filled up through direct recruitment, he added.
“We further suggest that while selecting candidates to such posts, preference should be given to the local candidates residing permanently in the district where the vacancies occur in positions that do not entail transfer beyond the district of the original posting,” he said.
Thabah said the combined reservation could help the Garos utilise the 90% quota in the Garo Hills in the absence of candidates belonging to the Khasi-Jaintia community while the latter can get the benefit in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills if no Garo candidates are interested in the jobs there.
According to the 2011 Census, Meghalaya is home to about 14.1 lakh Khasi-Jaintia people and a little more than 8.21 lakh Garos. The population figures underscore the significance of revisiting the SRP to ensure equitable representation and opportunity for all, he said.
Citing PIL No. 2 of 2023, he said the Meghalaya High Court discovered there was no roster system although the SRP has been in place in Meghalaya since January 1972.
Thabah said the KSU does not expect the government to prepare a retrospective reservation roster but the candidates applying for government jobs after the revised SRP came into existence, should not be deprived.
Referring to the Andhra Pradesh government’s notification in January 2022 reserving 100% of the posts of teachers in scheduled areas for local ST candidates, he said a similar provision should be made for the Khasi-Jaintia people in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills and the Garos in the Garo Hills region.
Thabah also underlined the need to factor in the total population of a particular tribe while making any provision for reservation of jobs.