The Voice of the People Party (VPP) has asked the State government to give the expert committee on job reservation policy only six months’ time to complete its tasks instead of twelve months as earlier proposed by the government.
In a letter to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma recently, the VPP appreciated him for honouring his promises to constitute the expert committee to review the job reservation policy.
The party also expressed hope that the committee would come up with appropriate and acceptable recommendations “that fulfill the principle of fairness and equity as far as reservation between the Khasi and Garo communities are concerned”.
“However, the party is of the view that the timeframe given to the committee which is one year is unexpected and requires a serious rethinking on the part of the State government. It is a considered opinion of the party that it is reasonable that the committee should be given six months only to complete its assigned task,” the VPP said in the letter.
The State government had last month constituted a five-member expert committee to review the State job reservation policy.
Former judge of Madhya Pradesh High Court, Justice Mool Chand Garg is the chairman of the expert committee.
The committee has four expert members. They include former judge of Allahabad High Court, Justice Satish Chandra who was appointed as expert member in Constitutional law, Prof. D V Kumar from Sociology Department, NEHU as expert member in Sociology, Prof. Chander Shekhar from Department of Fertility and Social Demography, Indian Institute of Population Sciences (deemed to be University), Mumbai as expert member in Population Studies and Prof. Subhadip Mukherjee, Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Policy, IIM, Shillong as expert member in Economics.
The expert committee has been asked to complete its work and submit its report to the State government within twelve months.
As per the terms of reference, the committee will examine the existing reservation policy and make proposals for any necessary modifications.
Further, the committee will undertake comprehensive consultations with all stakeholders and conduct visits to various locations across the State to gather inputs from stakeholders.
