Mukul Sangma catches Government on wrong foot

SHILLONG, April 6:  Leader of Opposition in the Meghalaya Assembly Mukul Sangma today said that the government should be careful while replying to queries in the House since a wrong answer may have implications in the future.

On Friday, while taking part in the Question Hour, Mukum Sangma had suggested to the government to correct the answer on the issue of reservation policy in higher education especially in polytechnic, MBBS and engineering studies.

“Why I am stressing on this (rectifying) is because it will have ramifications and will reflect the stand of the government,” the Congress leader said.

Sangma also said that if the government was not careful, such issues can have its fallout and might also go into litigation. Earlier, replying on the matter of whether the state job reservation policy does not include reservation for higher studies especially in technical lines such as polytechnic, MBBS and engineering studies, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma replied in the negative.

Sangma also informed the House that although the State Job Reservation Policy does not mention anything about Education, but he said that it was implied that the same should be extended to it too.

The Chief Minister however, could not reply when asked when did this practice to extend reservation for higher studies especially in technical lines started.

Congress legislator from Mawlai, Process T Sawkmie who also took part in the deliberations said that since there was confusion in the reply, he proposed to the Chief Minister to come up with a statement on the matter.

However, this suggestion was rejected by the Assembly Speaker, Donkupar Roy and even Conrad himself.