SHILLONG: Voice of the People Party (VPP), the main opposition party in Meghalaya, has proposed that the percentage of reservation for Khasi-Jaintia, Garos, Scheduled Castes (SC), and other tribes in Meghalaya should be determined based on their population according to the 1971 census.
VPP asserted that the Khasi and Jaintia communities must be recognised as a single community.
In a letter to the experts’ committee on state reservation policy, VPP president Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit stated, “The percentage of reservation for Khasi-Jaintia, Garos, Scheduled Castes, and other tribes should be based on their population as per the 1971 census. The Khasi-Jaintia community should be considered as one entity.”
Basaiawmoit criticized the current state job reservation policy for not accurately reflecting the official census data in its allocation of reservation percentages.
He argued that the existing policy, which allocates 40 percent for Khasi-Jaintia, 40 percent for Garos, and 5 percent for SC and other STs, lacks a logical and scientific basis and is instead based on assumptions rather than facts.
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“The allocation of percentages did not consider the accurate official census data, thereby contradicting the policy’s principle of representation based on population,” the VPP chief said.
He further noted that the Meghalaya high court’s 2022 judgment addressed the failure of Meghalaya to implement a roster system for job reservations, which had led to over-representation and under-representation of certain communities.
To rectify this, Basaiawmoit suggested that the over-representation and under-representation caused by the interchangeability provision of the 1972 policy would be corrected over time.
He also advocated for a separate percentage of reservation for SC and other STs and recommended that proficiency in either of Meghalaya’s associate official languages, Khasi or Garo, should be a prerequisite for job appointments in both reserved and unreserved categories.
“Only domiciles of Meghalaya should be considered for appointments to both reserved and unreserved posts in the state,” he added.