Shillong, May 19: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has made it clear that the government has no intention to implement the roster system right from 1972. He said this was also explained to all the political parties during the government’s presentation on roster system on Friday.

“I would like to clarify now today that all the appointments that were made in the past and all decisions that were taken were taken as per the reservation policy and hence, they are completely and legally binding on the government. Hence, the question of us going back and looking at it and cancelling or making adjustments does not arise. Therefore, these were done and appointed based on the reservation policy. And now after information and data has been plotted, we are now in a position in some of the departments to understand on how we are going to move forward,” he told reporters after the all-party meet.

When asked, Sangma said, “We have explained to everybody that the roster system is a continuous process. It starts from 1972 and it continues. It is important for us to understand this starting point because it allows us to understand where we are in the roster today.”

“But while we say that we also have to remember that in the past 50 years, whatever has happened in the recruitment process, which were plotted in the roster system, is something that is being done based on the reservation policy and based on the rules of the reservation policy. Hence, for us today to go back into the facts and figures and go back into the appointments being made and the process that was done is not possible for us to go back and make changes into it. Hence, the data and information allowed us to plot and understand where we stand in the sequence. But as I said, the option and concern that we will go back and change things in the past does not arise,” he reiterated.

Further, the chief minister informed that during the meeting, there were also certain political parties that have asked and stressed to discuss on different issues apart from the roster and they stressed that since the discussion was on reservation roster, they urged that reservation should be discussed and said, “We made it very clear to them that this discussion that we are having today is on the roster system and the reason the word reservation is there because it is the roster on the reservation and hence, the discussion was limited only to the roster system and not beyond that.”

To another query, Sangma said that the committee will be very short and quick since most of the issues have been discussed today.

“Since it is a sensitive topic, we as a government felt it is important to reach out, to discuss and it is important to take everybody into confidence before we move forward and hence, we have decided to come up with this committee,” he added.