The Khun Hynñiewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) has written to the Chief Minister and leaders of all the major political parties in Meghalaya over the controversial roster system.
The main point of the lengthy KHNAM missive is that roster registers need to be put in place before roster accounts are prepared and maintained based on the information, data and figures available in the roster registers.
Information required for these includes the number of sanctioned posts and those filled up (cadre-wise); and the number and names of serving employees (cadre-wise) recommended and appointed against the various reservation quotas and general category along with references of related result notifications and appointment letters.
“If the roster system is to be implemented retrospectively as decided by the state government, then it will be extremely difficult to obtain the requisite information and data mentioned,” KHNAM vice-president Thomas Passah said for “the period from 1972 to 2022 for the simple reason that the result notifications issued by MPSC (Meghalaya Public Service Commission) and other state recruiting authorities during the said period were published in an old format which did not show the category-wise break-up of the recommended candidates.”
Therefore, the MPSC would have to republish several decades worth of data with the category-wise breakup, he argued.
Instead of waiting for the MPSC, etc to complete their job, the departments had hurriedly and arbitrarily carried out the preparation of roster registers and roster accounts by using an unrealistic shortcut method of preparation based on mere assumptions and presumptions “using head counts of employees, calculating category-wise percentages based on serving employees,” etc, he added.
This would have erroneously captured all Khasi-Jaintias in service as part of the 40 percent quota whereas many of them had actually gained employment in the open category, KHNAM said, and that will mistakenly suggest that they have benefited in excess of their quota and will thus “give undue advantage and benefit to [the Garo community] at the expense of those belonging to the Khasi-Jaintia community.
If accurate roster registers cannot be prepared, then the government should discontinue the retrospective implementation of the roster system and instead apply it prospectively from 2023, KHNAM said.
