Meghalaya govt urges Centre to implement reservation policy in central institutes

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJanuary 29, 2020

SHILLONG: The state government has requested the Centre that the state reservation policy should be made applicable in respect to the seats reserved to students from Meghalaya in central institutes and universities.

It has also objected the decision of the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) Regional Office, Bhubaneswar to reject the application of the Kiang Nangbah Government College (KNGC), Jowai for starting a B.Ed course.

Education minister Lahkmen Rymbui told reporters on Wednesday that the issue related to the reservation of seats for B.Ed students at North East Regional Institute of Education (NERIE), Umiam and English and Foreign Language University (EFLU) was taken up recently.

Rymbui had also met the Union Minister for Human Resources Development requesting for his immediate intervention into the issue.

He said there are three seats reserved for aspiring teachers from the state at NERIE, Umiam. “But we found that the national reservation policy is applicable and due to this our students have not been able to get the benefit from this institute. Those who got admission many of them got from the general list or from the quota of other states,” Rymbui said.

“That is why, we have requested the Centre on the need to make the state reservation policy applicable for these seats reserved for Meghalaya,” he added.

The minister also informed that the state government has expressed the need to reserve some seats for students of the state in the English and Foreign Language University (EFLU).

Rymbui said that another issue was related to the decision of the NCTE Regional Office, Bhubaneshwar to reject the application of the KNGC, Jowai for starting the B.ED course.

“As per NCTE norms, the KNGC had applied online on July 27, last year and had also submitted the hard copies by speed post to the NCTE Regional Office on July 30 and again on August. To our surprise, a report was sent to us that the application of the KNGC was rejected in the meeting of the NCTE Regional Office held on January 16-18, due to delay in submission of the application,” he said.

Objecting to this, the minister said that it is not the fault of the college because it has all the receipts from the GPO, Shillong as to when the application was sent to Bhubaneswar.  “We know that papers sent through speed post will reach the destination within 48 or 72 hours and that it is not possible that it will take up to 15 days. Therefore they cannot reject the application when we have comply with the rules and sent the application well on time,” he said.

Asked, the minister informed that the matter has been raised and the government is waiting for the response.