A resident of Pynursla, Vicky Nelson Marbaniang, who recently accused Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong of reneging on a promise to support a training institute of his, today said that the reservation policy of the state is unfair and has been framed to make the Khasi-Jaiñtia people suffer.
Informing that the reservation for Khasi-Jaiñtia people is only 11.5 per cent while for the Garos it is 54 per cent in the 23 posts recently available at the Meghalaya High Court, he asked, “Where is the fairness in the reservation policy? There are frustrations among the youth community who are unemployed and their livelihood in peril because they cannot even afford a bag of rice to support their family but the state government is not being able to address this problem and least bothered of how the people are surviving.”
Claiming that there has been a rise in suicide in the state of adults below 30 years owing to lack of jobs, he said that the government is only saying that the reservation policy is a sensitive issue because elections are nearing and they do want to lose any seats in Garo Hills because of this issue.
“They fear that they would not win enough seats in Garo Hills because of this issue but are least bothered about how many youth are dying everyday because of depression, anxieties and very much troubled that they are taking away their lives,” he said, adding that the government neither cares about the education and health aspects.
Instead of sorting out these issues, the government has clamped down on protests by banning such agitations in the state capital, he added.
“The government doesn’t want to have a policy in place and neither allows people to come and talk to them so what do they expect out of this behaviour if not chaos and disorder,” he asked.