SHILLONG, June 21: The state government seems to be open to the idea of appointing members of the expert committee from outside the state to review the Meghalaya State Reservation Policy of 1972.
“We are looking at all aspects and not dwelling into any specifics that they should be from the state or outside,” Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma said on Wednesday while giving an update on the status of the search committee constituted to recommend names for constitution of the expert committee.
“The quality and the qualification of the individual and their capacity will be the top criteria for us. We will also see if some balance has to be made and we will look into that aspect also,” he added.
Some political parties and pressure groups have made it clear that the members of the expert committee should be from the state.
“We have already started looking for names. The search committee has gone through a large number of names. We expect that more names will come in,” Sangma said.
Sangma said Chief Secretary DP Wahlang, who heads the three-member search committee, has already briefed him on certain names that have come up. “We want a very good panel of names so that we are able to come up with a good committee that is balanced, neutral and independent in nature and is also effective and qualified enough so that a proper report can be prepared,” the CM said.
It may be recalled that the state government had decided to form an expert committee to review the reservation policy and a three-member search committee headed by the chief secretary was instituted to recommend the names to the state government for constitution of the expert committee that would be tasked with reviewing the job reservation policy.
