Drawing the attention of the state government to the reservation issue particularly concerning the Konyak tribe, the Konyak Students’ Union (KSU) has urged the state government to hasten the comprehensive review of the existing reservation system and revamp the policy.
In a press release, KSU president T Noklem Konyak and general secretary A Pangnan stated that the current distribution system of backward quota among the Eastern Nagaland tribes on the principle of equality rather than population defied “all common sense and rationality of any socio-economic welfare policy.”
The student body reminded that the Konyak Union had also submitted a representation to the chief minister on May 7, 2019 and reminder on September 30, 2020 highlighting the plight of the Konyak community “exacerbated due to unfair and unjust quota allocation among the backward tribes.”
KSU pointed out that as per data from the department of economics and statistics, the number of Konyak employees as on 2018-19 stood approximately around 7981, which it said was not even 4% of the Konyak population. With the same employment policy, KSU said that the number would not achieve any substantial increase even in 2024.
“Even a casual glance and comparison of population Employment ratio of all the tribes will provide sufficient evidence to validate our claim,” KSU said.
Further, KSU asserted that the current action affirmative policy rather than serving an intended objective have only widened the inequality gap in employment sector as compared to counterpart communities.
It maintained that “due to such discriminatory policy” the Konyak educated and deserving youth have been deprived in exams conducted by NPSC and various departments ever since the reservation came into effect.
Stating that the concept of equality was practicable “only in equal circumstances, time and space”, the KSU said that “coercive implementation of equality” by ignoring the reality of demographic differences only created reverse discrimination.
As the state government seeks to streamline the service sector, the apex Konyak student body asserted that more genuine employment opportunity was anticipated soon under NPSC, NSSB and Departmental recruitment.
Acknowledging the state government’s commitment to uphold meritocracy across fields, the union urged the state government to hasten the comprehensive review of the existing reservation system and revamp the policy.