Reservation Without a Proper Roster is Meaningless: Meghalaya CM

SHILLONG: Amidst the unrest that took place in the state of Manipur because of a conflict regarding granting reservation status to the state’s Maitei community, the Meghalaya chief minister mentioned on Thursday that a reservation policy in his state without implementing a roster is meaningless.

The roster is an application to check if the reservation of posts in a cadre for different reserved categories with reference to the applicable percentage of reservations for the categories. “A reservation policy without a roster is meaningless. We had a thorough presentation on the roster with all coalition partners,” said Conrad Sangma regarding the issue. He also mentioned that the state government has briefed the other members of the coalition regarding the system.

He also said that all the elected members of the Meghalaya Assembly who are a part of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance which is currently in power in the state are on the same page regarding this development. And that the representatives of the state government will meet with the leaders of all the political parties to discuss the roster adopted by the state government.

The Voice of the People’s Party which has four members in the house and forms the main opposition, demanded the state government modify the reservation policy. They mentioned that the Khasi population constituting the Jaintias, Wars, Bhois and Lyngngams is higher than the Garo population in the state. They also added that while the Khasi population is over 16 lakhs, the Garo population is less than 10 lakh. Voice of the People’s Party president said, “We want the government to address this injustice without denying anyone's rights.”

The party had also organised a protest regarding this on Wednesday, which saw good participation from local people. They had also called for another protest meeting on Friday.

Also Read: Meghalaya State Roundtable for the North East Global Investors Summit held

Also Watch: