The Voice of the People’s Party (VPP) today gave a 48-hour ultimatum to the MDA government to put on hold all job recruitments in the State government till the roster system and job reservation policy are relooked and reviewed.
The VPP also asked the State government to issue an official notification in this regard failing which the party will be compelled to call for a series of agitations.
Leaders of the VPP led by its general secretary Ricky A J Syngkon today formally submitted a letter to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma through Deputy Chief Minister Sniawbhalang Dhar seeking review of the policy and a halt to the ongoing recruitment process.
Earlier, a public meeting was held at the parking lot near the Additional Secretariat here where around 500 people attended.
During a gathering, VPP president Ardent M. Basaiawmoit said that the party wanted the government to review the reservation policy and pending such a process, all recruitment processes should be put on hold.
Basaiawmoit said that the VPP was not against their Garo brothers and sisters as far as the demand for review of the reservation policy is concerned.
“We just want to ensure that this policy should be reserved proportionately, according to the population structure of the State. We will not take away the rights of other communities and we are not asking the government to do away with the reservation policy,” he said.
“We have two main tribes and the government is following a reservation policy framed by the government itself and in this current policy there is a problem since it hasn’t been reserved according to the population structure of the people living in the State. So we feel if the government is implementing the roster system in the present form and is recruiting and filling up posts it will create a lot of problems for the unemployed youth of the State,” Basaiawmoit added.
He reiterated that the present job reservation policy should be rectified in many aspects so that it addresses the grievances of the local indigenous tribes of Meghalaya be it Khasi or Garos and not people from outside the State.
Party MLA from North Shillong, Adelbert Nongrum in his speech said that if the issue is not settled now, it would create more problems later.
“If we don’t act now, when will we act? We have been tolerating it for the past 50 years. Enough is enough,” Nongrum said.
Also present at the gathering were Mawlai MLA Brightstarwell Marbaniang and Mawryngkneng MLA Heaving Stone Kharpran.
