The Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) today reiterated its feeling that the expert committee on the reservation policy and roster system is just a delay tactic on the part of the state government.
This week, chairperson of the committee, cabinet minister Ampareen Lyngdoh, said that she had not received any recommendations or questions from political parties for the committee, meaning that it has not been able to progress with its work. When asked whether political parties have been issued with a deadline to respond, Lyngdoh said that she did not want one so as not to put off any parties.
KHNAM working president Thomas Passah, however, claimed that his party has already submitted its representation and said that political representatives were told, at an all-party meeting on May 31, that political parties had to submit theirs within 15 days.
“A decision taken that day was that all political parties were to submit their representation along with justification within 15 days,” Passah said. “KHNAM has submitted its representation along with justification on the same day. However, it is regrettable to learn that the Law Minister (Lyngdoh) said that none of the political parties have submitted their representation till date.”
Dubbing this “unprofessional”, Passah added that delay tactics in addressing issues of public importance is not a new thing.
“In the all-party meeting, KHNAM, UDP (United Democratic Party), HSPDP (Hill State People’s Democratic Party), VPP (Voice of the People Party) and INC (Congress Party) have expressed a view to review the outdated Reservation Police 1972. However, it seems that since the matter is off the streets everyone has taken a vacation from the important issue,” he said. “More than a month has passed but this snail’s pace delay on the issue is highly unacceptable. We have time and again expressed our concerns about the implementation of a retrospective roster system by the government. In multiple meetings the government has attempted to mislead political parties and the general public.”
Passah stated that the latest results of the Meghalaya police job recruitment process bears his concerns out, with 420 Khasi-Jaintia candidates selected compared to 466 Garo candidates, which “implies that the result was declared based on the retrospective roster system.”
