Meghalaya Govt sets aside OM allowing Garos from outside of Meghalaya to apply for govt jobs

SHILLONG, JUNE 27: Garo people, who are not residents of Meghalaya, will no longer be eligible to apply for government jobs in the state.

This came after the State Cabinet had approved the amendment of the Office Memorandum (OM) of 1974 relating to the reservation policy during a meeting chaired by the chief minister Conrad K Sangma here on Tuesday.

“The OM dated 1974, will be set aside as it is being observed that most of the vacancies reserved for Garo categories have been and are being filled by qualified candidates from the Garo category who are (not) available from within the state. So we have deleted the OM which allowed Garos living outside the state of Meghalaya to be eligible for applying for jobs in the state of Meghalaya,” cabinet minister and government spokesperson Ampareen Lyngdoh told reporters after the meeting.

Lyngdoh informed that the state cabinet was also pleased to amend the other OMs of the personnel department on reservation policy, reservation roster.

“In the new situation where we have a new cabinet memo regarding the implementation of the roster in the state of Meghalaya, we were now able to omit certain eraneous OMs that were issued in the previous years,” she said.

“For example, January 12, 1972. The OM relating to vacancies for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes with a notification which says that number of vacancies will be filled up as per roster point arrived at the reservation policy and hence, regulation of a reservation in a situation where the numbers of vacancies is 9 or less would not be required anymore.

So this has been amended,” the minister added.

She further added, “A third OM has also been looked at and we have amended it. The OM of 2020 on the reservation roster for persons with disabilities (PwDs). It was notified then. However with the issue of the new OM dated June 14, 2023, the reservation for PwDs have been fixed as per definite points in the reservation roster and hence, the previous OM will not be applicable henceforth.”

The minister also informed that a proviso has also been added to the new reservation roster by ensuring knowledge of local language is included in the recruitment of the different categories of posts.

“A proviso has also been added to this new reservation roster. The provision of para 2 and in view of this, it has been found necessary that this proviso should also entail para 2 to the OM incorporating a qualification paper that is knowledge of local language to be included in the recruitment of categories of posts which fall under the purview of the district selection committees (DSCs),” she said.

By Our Reporter