Shillong, June 27: Spokesperson of the MDA government and cabinet minister Ampareen Lyngdoh on Tuesday said the search committee should be given its own time to complete the process of searching members for the Expert Committee to review the state reservation policy.
“We are in the process of searching members who are willing to head or be members of such a committee. The process has started and we need to give the search committee its own time so that we do things in the correct way and correct manner,” Lyngdoh told reporters.
Stating that the government does not want to rush things since the issue is very sensitive, the minister said, “We just have to be vigilant and we will wait and we understand that there is this pressure but we shall not rush in matters as these are all very sensitive matters with a lot of legal complications and we do not want to say anything which is going to be incorrect in this point in time.”
She also said the membership of the expert committee will be determined by the queries that are raised by the various stakeholders with regards to the reservation policy.
“Once the queries are understood and we understand the mind of the people posing the questions then we can likely look at the membership of this expert committee as membership of this expert committee will be determined by the kind of predominant questions and issues that arise, that are being asked by these various organizations and individuals of the community,” she added.
On the allegation made by political parties and NGOs that the new office memorandum on reservation roster dated June 14, is full of confusion and is not clear whether roster will be implemented retrospectively or prospectively, Lyngdoh however said as far as the implementation of roster is concerned, there is a committee in place.
“One letter has come from KHNAM. However, I have clarified again that nomenclature used in the government’s announcement may not conform to certain words which they may want us to use. However, in principle, in spirit and in letter, the roster serves the purpose of the implementation of this practice that has been going on in the state of Meghalaya since 1972. Convention and practice will be traditionally followed through and whatever observations being made political parties can send these observations,” she said.
On the demand of indigenous minority tribes for 15% job reservation, the spokesperson said, “We have met at the level of the chief minister with the other indigenous ST communities of the state of Meghalaya last week and we have communicated to them that they will send in writing all of their observations.”
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