The Hynñiewtrep Integrated Territorial Organisation (HITO) said today that the respective populations of the Garo and Khasi-Jaiñtia communities should be the deciding factor in how large a slice each gets in the job reservation pie.
The pressure group today said that the job reservation policy that was created in 1972 was meant to be based on population but, instead of using the census figures, only a rough assumption was used by the policymakers.
In this, HITO mirrored the statement made by the Voice of the People Party (VPP) almost exactly.
According to the last census, from 2011, the Khasi-Jaiñtia community is around 14.11 lakh strong in Meghalaya compared to 8.21 lakh for the Garos. However, both groups have 40 per cent reservation each in the state’s job reservation policy.
This has caused the Khasi-Jaintia youth to “face serious difficulties… without any fault on their part”.
Meanwhile, it also said that the implementation of the roster system by way of an office memorandum was done without proper examination of the population structure and without weighing the pros and cons.
It also criticised the A’chik Conscious Holistically Integrated Krima (ACHIK) for castigating VPP leader Ardent M Basaiawmoit wherein it told the MLA to approach the Meghalaya High Court on the issue instead of launching public protests and making bombastic speeches.
HITO said that it appears that ACHIK’s press statement was made without proper appreciation of the facts and with the sole objective to create socio-political unrest and to malign some political leaders and others who are rightly seeking a review of the existing job reservation policy in the state.
“It is evident that there is a genuine cause for the dissatisfaction of the Khasi- Jaiñtia Scheduled Tribe communities of Meghalaya and it is imperative that the existing job reservation policy of 1972 be reviewed by the government so as to ensure adequate and effective representation of the Khasi and Jaiñtia communities based on the present population,” it added.
