Soon the expert committee to review the Meghalaya State Reservation Policy, 1972 will be finalized. A panel lead by Chief Secretary Donald P Wahlang has managed to shortlisted the names of the chairperson as well as the members who will constitute the expert committee that will review the job quota policy of Meghalaya.
Only the Cabinet’s approval needs to be sought for the list of names proposed. The list contains names of people outside Meghalaya too.
The move has come after the Voice of the People Party sent a petition to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma to speed up the process of forming the expert committee.
The existing policy is over five decades old. Ideally, it should have been reviewed every decade just as other government policies.
The roster system decides the reservation of posts for various categories. Since the policy was made in 1972, 40 per cent of Meghalaya government jobs are reserved for the Garo and Khasi communities each. Five per cent jobs are kept aside for other tribes of the state, and 15 per cent seats are reserved for candidates from the general category.
Members of the expert panel entrusted with reviewing the job quota policy have been selected basis their qualifications and abilities and not on the basis of the states they belong to.
This has been done to ensure effective and neutral reporting and decision making.
The panel will include experts from various fields, including demographic studies, constitutional law, sociology and economics. Opinions of all stakeholders will be taken into account by the expert panel whose members will also visit all parts of Meghalaya to gather data and information.
