The expert committee to review the State reservation policy has decided to hold public hearings in the capital and all the district headquarters of the state.
An official press statement informed that the decision was taken at the second physical meeting with senior officials of the Meghalaya government held today.
The public hearings will also be held in any other place (s) that will be decided by the committee after receiving comments and suggestions from stakeholders.
The committee also decided that a public notice will also be issued soon to seek consultations, suggestions, comments on the reservation policy.
The next meeting of the committee is scheduled in the month of May.
The expert committee was notified on September 12, 2023 to review the existing reservation policy as existing in the State of Meghalaya.
The terms of reference of the expert committee are to study the current reservation policy and recommend modifications, if necessary and to undertake wide-ranging consultations with all stakeholders and visit various locations of the state to solicit the views of all stakeholders.
The formation of the expert committee followed the demand of the Voice of the People Party (VPP) whose president Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit staged an indefinite hunger strike from May 23 to June 1, 2023 to press for review of the reservation policy.
The committee has members from various fields. They include former judge of Allahabad High Court Justice (Retired) Dr. Satish Chandra who is an expert member in constitutional law, Prof. D V Kumar of the Department of Sociology, NEHU, Shillong as expert member in sociology, Prof. Chander Shekhar from the Department of Fertility and Social Demography, Indian Institute of Population Sciences, Mumbai as expert member in population studies and Prof. Subhadip Mukherjee, Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Policy of IIM, Shillong as expert member in economics.
