M’laya CM on Roster row: Cab meet tomorrow, followed all-party meet, meet with CSO, NGOs, church leaders

Amid the row over giving government jobs based on the Roster system that has snowballed into a big political hot potato with opposition VPP issuing an ultimatum to the Conrad Sangma government, the Meghalaya Chief Minister said on Tuesday that his government will make a detailed presentation to the Cabinet tomorrow, then hold a meeting with the MDA partners on May 18 and an all-party meet will be held the next day, May 19 to explain the roster system and address all concerns.

“Once the presentation is seen, I am sure everybody will be very clear as to what it is and everybody’s doubt’s will be cleared,” CM Sangma said in Shillong today answering questions from the media on the roster row.

“We are going to have a Cabinet presentation tomorrow evening, on the 18th we are having a meeting with the MDA partners and on the 19th we intend to call all the parties to discuss. After that, since the civil society is very large, to coordinate and create space so that we can accommodate everybody we will be doing next week for civil society which includes NGOs or church leaders or different Rongbah Shnongs,” the CM further said.

The Meghalaya Chief Minister also maintained that the government’s intention is clear and seeks to make the people understand what actually the Roster system is.
He said, “we also intend to reach out to everybody and share what exactly is Roster. The problem is lot of people don’t understand what Roster is actually. Roster is a very complicated yet a very simple thing but to understand it is slightly complicated. But I am pretty sure that once anybody sees the presentation they will understand things and most will be satisfied.”
Reacting to the Voice of People’s Party (VPP)’s demand to put on hold all recruitments to government posts, CM Sangma said, “Political parties will say what they have to say. Government has to follow all procedures and procedures will be followed in all aspects.”
Earlier, on April 24 the VPP had reaffirmed its stand on the Roster system and reiterated that the base year of the implementation must be 2021 or 2022 and not 1972.
On May 12, VPP president Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit gave the Conrad Sangma-led Meghalaya government 48 hours to put on hold government job interviews based on the Roster system failing which the VPP threatened to launch agitation. Basaiawmoit had alleged that the government was purportedly focusing more on implementation of the Roster system rather than reviewing the Reservation Policy, which the VPP considers not to be proportionate to the population.

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