The Khun Hynñiewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) has said that the reservation roster system is not important as the method is only to adopt advertising and filling up of the declared vacancies as reflected in the roster registers/accounts.
According to the party, the reservation roster registers and the reservation roster accounts are the most vital roster documents as they are the ones that determine and fix the total number of vacancies available as well as the number vacancies/posts to be earmarked and distributed among the various reserved categories.
To put through its views after walking out of the all political party meeting held recently, KHNAM had yesterday petitioned the Law Minister and chairperson of the reservation roster system committee Ampareen Lyngdoh seeking review of the retrospective implementation of the roster system and the state job reservation policy.
KHNAM wants the committee to look into the cut-off date for preparation of the reservation roster registers and accounts to be effective from May 10, 2022, the date which the government has adopted the office memorandum on maintenance of reservation roster.
“Retrospective preparation of the roster registers and roster accounts (whether based on published facts & figures or on assumed/presumed data) by going back to 50 years or 10 years or even 5 years ago, will give rise to a huge backlog of vacancies /posts in favour of one reserved category or more as a result of the carrying forward of reserved vacancies of previous years,” KHNAM President Pyndapborthiaw Saibon said.
Stating that according to Clause 2 of the Resolution dated 12.01.1972 on the State Reservation Policy 1972, the reserved vacancies or backlogs cannot be carried forward for more than one year and that on the expiry of the second year, the reserved vacancies shall be treated as lapsed, he said going by this provision contained in the said resolution, the reserved vacancies/posts carried forward over the past 50 years or 10 years or 5 years due to the retrospective preparation/generation of the roster registers/accounts will go against the letter and spirit of the policy and hence backlogs are liable to be treated as illegal backlogs.
Saibon also said if the government brings forth an amendment to the reservation policy by deleting Clause 2 of the resolution, such action is bound to take effect from the date of issue of that amendment, which in that case, it will not help to regularize the existence of backlogs or carried forward vacancies of previous years and can still be treated as illegal.
The KHNAM President also said the party is unhappy with the all political party meeting because no meaningful discussion was held on the core issue of reviewing of the cut-off date for the implementation of the reservation roster system and review of the policy.
“We noticed that instead of focusing on the main and primary issue of reviewing and refixing the cut-off date for implementation of the roster system, those from the government side were only involving themselves in the detailed presentation and discussions on the application of the reservation roster points system which is a secondary subject of much less significance,” he added.
