The state government on Friday convened an all-party meeting and decided to constitute a committee on roster system before taking a final decision on the matter.
After chairing the All Party meeting, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma informed the committee will be headed by the Minister in-charge Health and Family Welfare Ampareen Lyngdoh. He further said, that the government has also decided to put on hold all new job recruitments.
Speaking to reporters, Sangma said, “We have decided that in order to ensure that all the different concerns that are there are clarified, a committee is proposed to be set up which will be chaired by the health minister Ampareen Lyngdoh and different members from different political parties will be in it.”
He said that the political parties will be able to seek more clarification and give further suggestions on how to move forward with the roster.
The chief minister also informed that the state government has agreed to the request of the political parties to put on hold all the new job recruitments till the committee submits its report on the roster system.
“We have agreed to that as a government that we will keep things on hold till the committee is satisfied and give us a final report and a final discussion which we expect it to be happening in a very, very short time,” he said.
He informed that the government will immediately come up with the terms and references and the committee will be sitting very soon.
The CM said after detailed discussion and presentation were given, most of the political parties have expressed that they satisfied with the discussion on the roster.
Sangma said that clarification was also made in connection with the education sector on whether the roster system is applicable or not.
“We have clarified that the roster is meant for job recruitment only and hence it is not meant to be implemented for education purposes in the sense for different seats in different education institutions across the country,” he maintained.
Also clarifying that the government has no intention to implement the roster system right from 1972, the chief minister said the matter was explained to all political parties during the presentation.
“I would like to clarify now today that all the appointments that were made in the past and all decisions that were taken were taken as per the reservation policy and hence, they are completely and legally binding on the government. Hence, the question of us going back and looking at it and cancelling or making adjustments does not arise. Therefore, these were done and appointed based on the reservation policy. And now after information and data has been plotted, we are now in a position in some of the departments to understand on how we are going to move forward.”