ENSF demands ‘One Person One Reservation’ for 7 tribes

Eastern Naga Students’ Federation (ENSF) has appealed to the state government for implementation of ‘One Person One Reservation’ (OPOR) for seven tribes of Eastern Nagaland from the current 25% job reservation in the recruitment process.
In a memorandum to chief minister Neiphiu Rio, ENSF president Chingmak Chang and assistant general secretary Kaibo Konyak, suggested a ‘three-point measure’ to tackle the issue such as- to circumscribe aspirants from availing more than one post from 25% job reservation under Nagaland Public Service Commission (NPSC) as well as Nagaland Staff Selection Board (NSSB) through official notifications from the departments concerned.
ENSF further called for circumscribing the aspirants from availing more than one post from job reservation under District Level Recruitment Board (DLRB), and 25% job reservation in any other recruitment process followed by any departmental recruitment board (DRB)/corporation/board/CSS vacancy, etc, where the vacancies are advertised be filled up through an official notification from the department concerned.
ENSF also acknowledged and appreciated the State government’s wisdom for implementing the Backward Tribes (BT) Job Reservation Policy for the Weaker Section of Nagaland in 1977 after having thoroughly analysed and fathomed the depth of economic, educational and employment disparity of the region from other Naga tribes, besides heeding to their genuine demand for overhauling the reservation policy that gave birth to partial modification to the department’s 2011 notification in 2015, adding more safety, fair and just modus operandi to the existing policy.
However, ENSF said they it had discovered yet another malady behind the stagnant employment rate of Eastern Nagas in the public sector despite availing the 25% BT quota that required correction at the earliest.
According to ENSF even after more than 45 years of its implementation, attempts of successive governments to bridge the gap in the sphere of employment had never succeeded, as envisaged in the BT reservation policy. They mentioned that ENSF was taken aback that the employment rate of Eastern Nagas was only 13% even after 45 years of its implementation, as reflected in the RTI reply filed in NPSC in 2019.
Hence, after marathon quest for the reason behind it, ENSF claimed to have discovered that the reason for the stagnancy in employment rate of eastern Nagaland was a single person benefitting/enjoying more than one BT quota. ENSF claimed that once the aspirant cracked the exam, he or she began to higher posts. And as and when the desired post was secured, he or she would resign from the previous post.
The federation said that once a person resigned from the post that he or she had secured through BT quota, the post so resigned was no more treated as BT quota and was advertised as fresh vacancy in the ensuing recruitment. Consequently, that particular tribe loses of one BT quota.
ENSF mentioned that this practice had been going on since day one of the implementation of 25% job reservation. In this manner, they said many posts had been lost. It claimed that there was a loss of 44 posts between 2009-2019 as per the RTI reply of 2019.
ENSF wondered how many posts had gone lost within a span of 45 years if it filed RTI with effect from 1977 to till date? Thus, if government of the day does not correct the existing woe, the intent/objective behind implementing 25% job reservation will be a total failure,” the memorandum cautioned.
At this rate, the ENSF argued it would be necessary to continue with the policy for an indefinite period, even as the employment rate would presumably keep on reducing and the aspirations of the Eastern Nagas to keep/remain on a par with rest of Naga tribes in terms of economic viability and employment justice would remain a far-reaching futility.
Against this backdrop, ENSF said the federation and its seven federating units had unanimously adopted a resolution on March 4, 2022 for ‘One Person One Reservation’ during its 21st Federal Assembly at ITC DAN, Noklak and impress upon the State government for its quick implementation for Eastern Nagas.
Under the above facts and circumstances, ENSF requested the chief minister to peruse the matter keeping in mind the objective of reservation policy and consider the ENSF’s plea. It said correcting this anomaly would not only lighten the burden of the State government over the job reservation issue, but also help the Eastern Nagas realise their long-held aspiration vis-à-vis to be on a par with other Naga tribes across the State.