Shillong: The National People’s Party-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance 2.0 government has decided to discuss and take a call on the issue related to the implementation of the roster system in the upcoming meeting of the Meghalaya cabinet.
This came after the demand for calling a special session of the State Assembly to discuss the issue pertaining to the roster system and the state reservation policy following a recent order passed by the Meghalaya High Court.
Speaking to media persons today, Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong said that he does not see any need to have a special session to discuss the issue.
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“However, I am not saying that right now. When Chief Minister is back in Shillong, we are planning to have an all-party meeting, we would (also like to have an MDA meeting but first of all we will have a detailed discussion in the cabinet and then ultimately we will take a decision maybe we can also call an all-party meeting where we can share and discuss everything with all the political parties,” he said.
Tynsong said, “Well that is a very long story. Let me just tell you one thing, we already filed the affidavit three times and that time the Meghalaya High Court (in its earlier order) says you have to do the roster system right from 1972. They clearly said it should be right from the inception of the reservation policy which means that we have to go back to 1972.”
“But in view of the latest ruling of the High Court, we will again sit down, we will discuss in the Cabinet, we will discuss in the MDA and thereafter we can even call the all-party meeting,” he added.
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On the demand of various organisations that the roster system should not be implemented right from 1972, the deputy chief minister said, “It should not be retrospective. That is true. Even from the government side last year, we already filed affidavits two-three times, we requested the High Court if possible let us make it prospective. From the day the ruling came in we would like to have that roster system also to be in place from that time itself.”
With regards to the demand for reviewing the state reservation policy, Tynsong however said, “We will take up (the issues) one by one. As of now, I think the issue is about the roster system so the government has taken note of this, we will discuss it in the cabinet and we will discuss it with the MDA partners as well as if necessary we will call the all-party meeting.”
NNN
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