The Voice of the People Party (VPP) on Friday demanded the state government to put on hold its job recruitment process within 48 hours and to consider reviewing the state reservation policy at earliest.
Speaking at a rally held at the parking lot adjacent to the Additional Secretariat, VPP president and Nongkrem legislator Ardent M Basaiawmoit said, “We have decided to set a 48-hour ultimatum for the government to immediately come up with a notification putting on hold the job recruitment process in the state pending review of the state reservation policy.”
He said, “On failing, we would have no other option but to call for series of agitations against the adamant attitude of this government.”
He said this is the second letter to the government after it has failed to respond to the first letter which demanded for convening of the Assembly’s special session for discussion on this sensitive issue.
Basaiawmoit said that the party has decided to instead entrusted party leaders to submit the letter to the government after they were informed that the chief minister and deputy chief minister are not in station.
“We were told they have gone to Delhi to request the Centre to support the state for setting up an international airport. I fail to understand why don’t they first improve the functioning of the existing airport. However, this is seen as just an excuse to avoid meeting us because you think that the VPP do not have the number as they have only 4 MLAs,” he said.
The Nongkrem legislator further alleged that the government is avoiding discussion because they don’t have justification to say that the present policy is right. “They understand once they sit in the table across with us they will not be able to justify their stand that the present reservation policy is fine that it doesn’t have any problem and that it takes care for every tribe in the state.”
When asked, the VPP chief said that the party’s stand is very clear that the problem is not with the roster system but it is with the entire policy.
“The policy is not proportionate so how can you divide the policy by two. You need to understand the population structure of the state, you need to see that the population of Khasi-Jaintia is more than the population in Garo Hills so how do you expect that the policy will be reserved equally between the two,” he said.
“When we fight for the reservation it doesn’t mean that we fight for ourselves only. We fight so that this reservation is ‘just and fair’ for these two communities,” he said.
He alleged that “As we know, according to the present policy it even gives a chance to the tribes from outside the state to enjoy this reservation policy. Therefore, this reservation policy has to be for Garos of Meghalaya and has to be for the Khasis in Meghalaya not any other tribes coming from any other states. So it is for their own good that we are trying to bring a solution to this issue.”
Asked, Basaiawmoit said, “Definitely, we will be discussing, we will be engaging as our stand is not against our Garo brothers. We just want to see that this policy is being reviewed, relook and re-examine and bring a policy which is just and fair for both the communities, nothing more than that.”