SHILLONG, June 14: The Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) has asserted the need to come up with a comprehensive new or revised Meghalaya State Reservation Policy to ensure equitable representation and opportunities for all Khasi, Jaintias and Garos of the state.
In a letter to the expert committee on State Reservation Policy on Thursday, the KSU said that the state government while making any provision for reservation of appointment or post in favour of Garo and Khasi-Jaintia scheduled tribes may take the total population of a particular tribe and after doing the necessary exercise make the reservation and provide the extent of percentage of post to be reserved to the respective ST and the percentage has to be followed strictly.
“According to the 2011 census, the state is home to about 14.1 lakhs Khasi-Jaintia population and slightly over 8.21 lakhs Garo individuals. Therefore, the figure underscores the significance of a comprehensive revision of State Reservation Policy to ensure equitable representation and opportunities for all individuals of the Khasi-Jaintias and Garo communities,” it said.
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On considering the latest census of the state, the KSU said, “We suggest that 50 per cent of the vacancies be reserved for Khasi- Jaintia and 40 per cent for Garos. 5 per cent should be reserved for other scheduled tribes and scheduled castes for vacancies at the state level and the remaining 5 per ccent should be left as unreserved category to be filled up through direct recruitment.”
It also said that further considering the position as regards the district level posts where the incumbent are not likely to be transferred outside the district of original posting, “The KSU proposed the reservation will remain as it was embodied in the Resolution No. PER.222/1/132, dated 12th January 1972 with a slight modification if the proposal of 50 per cent for Khasi-Jaintias and 40 per cent for Garos is to be accepted. Therr will be a combined reservation of 90 per cent of the posts in favour of Garos, Khasi-Jaintia instead of separate reservation of 50 per cent in favour of Khasi-Jaintia and 40 per cent in favour of Garo, apart from 5 per cent reservation in favour of other SC and ST tribes, who were the inhabitants of Assam and now reside in Meghalaya.”
It further suggested that while selecting candidates to such posts, preference should be given to the local candidates residing permanently in the concerned district in which the vacancies occurred.
Further, the KSU also asserted the need to ensure that the roster system for the state reservation policy is implemented with prospective effect.
“It was least expected from the functionary like the government or any authority pronouncement that the reservation roster shall be retrospective. Therefore opinion of the organisation in order not to deprive the fresh qualified candidate appearing for various government jobs, the revise reservation Policy will have prospective effect, i.e. from the date the new or revise reservation policy come into effect or with effect from its publication in the Gazette of Meghalaya,” it said.
The KSU also urged that 100 per cent reservation be made in favour of local Khasi-Jaintia candidates for the post of teachers in all schools situated in the scheduled areas of Khasi-Jaintias region, and 100 per cent reservation for local Garo candidates for the post of teacher/SSA teacher in all school situated in the Garo region.
It also suggested that the reservation policy will not be application in case of vacancies filled by transfer or deputation or by promotion, temporary appointment of less than one year duration or post which is purely temporary such as work-charged staff.
The KSU further suggested that in the new or revised reservation policy, the backlog reserved vacancies, which will be carried forward to the next recruitment cycle, would be deleted or omitted. (NNN)
