Every government policy has a shelf lift and the job reservation policy is no exception, Congress politician Manuel Badwar has told Highland Post.
The roster system, which has sharply divided opinion in the state, is not the real problem but the even split in quotas of 40 per cent each for the Khasi-Jaintia and Garo communities is, he opined recently.
“Any policy the government makes has a shelf life and the shelf life of the 50-year-old (job reservation) policy is dilapidated,” Badwar said.
The policy reserves 40 per cent of government jobs for the Garo community and another 40 percent for the Khasi-Jaintia community, despite the latter heavily outnumbering the former. The policy was agreed in 1972, the year Meghalaya became a separate state.
“When the population keeps changing every five or ten years, then 20 years is a good enough period of time before you have to relook at the policy because things change fast,” Badwar, the Congress’s unsuccessful East Shillong candidate at the recent Assembly election, said. “Tell me how can a policy that is more than 50 years old remain the same just because it helps one section of society. It cannot remain like this forever. Why is there no amendment to the reservation policy when the problem lies there itself?”
Maintaining that his opinion is not meant to hurt people’s sentiments, Badwar said that the population structure has to be understood as it stands today and should be amended to reflect the realities.
He is of the opinion that all parties have to come together and discuss the issue and arrive at a solution that is in the best interest of Meghalaya irrespective of party lines.
