DIMAPUR — The Chakhroma Students’ Union (CSU) has supported the memorandum submitted to the chief minister on September 22 by the five tribe committee pertaining to review and reform of the state’s job reservation policy.
While acknowledging the affirmative action taken to address historical inequalities and provide opportunities to the marginalised communities, CSU however stated that such policies extending for a period of more than 47 years is a matter of great concern and needed immediate review from the government of the day.
“Reservation policy is not addressing the root causes such as poor access to education, healthcare or infrastructural development. If the underlying issues are not addressed to the very root, job reservation is not the only solution for socio—economic upliftment. Therefore, it is important and crucial to revise the job reservation policy,” CSU said.
The union was of the view that if the government fails to take concrete measures to address the burning issues, it would soon create a new disparities or inefficiencies among the Nagas.
“The job reservation policy in Nagaland has remained unchanged and the tribes benefiting from the policy have now advanced at in par with the so-called advanced tribes, and surprisingly no review or changes have been made thus far,” it added.
CSU lamented that despite of numerous recommendations made by various committees, they were largely ignored except for some minor implementations.
It contended that key issues such as the duration of reservation, internal reservation, impact of multiple benefits for backward tribes, concept of ‘creamy layers,’ discrepancies in entry age and the backlog of reserved posts have not been adequately addressed.
CSU, therefore, appealed to the government to retrospect and rectify the present system of reservation policy in Nagaland without further delay.