Chief Minister Conrad Sangma has asked the people of the state to stop depending on the reservation and compete on the world level and that will be the day when Northeast will change and move forward.
Speaking at the international day of the World’s Indigenous People organised by North East Indigenous People’s Forum (NEIPF), Meghalaya Chapter at Multi Conventional Hall at NEHU here on Wednesday, the chief minister recalled his late father and said it is important to change the mind-set of the people especially the indigenous community and stop expecting that there will be a reservation in all aspects of life.
“We need to look beyond reservation and the mind-set of the youth of the North East should be that they are competent enough to compete with anyone in the world,” he added.
Recalling the vision of Late PA Sangma, the Chief Minister said the day the mindset of the youths of the Northeast will start changing, that is when the Northeast will start changing.
“ The day the youths of the Northeast, specially the tribal community ‘stop expecting’ that there will be reservation for everything they do and then everything should come easy to them, the day the youths change their mindset, that is the day when the Northeast will start moving forward,” Sangma said.
“Our youths need to look beyond reservation, it’s not about whether reservation is needed or not, whether it should be given, it’s not the debate but the mindset should be that the objective is that I will be competing with the rest of the world. I don’t need reservation to compete. I am going to compete with whatever capacity God has blessed me with. We need to be proud of who we are,” the Chief Minister added.