Shillong, May 23: Opposition Voice of the People Party (VPP) chief Ardent Basaiawmoit on Tuesday started an indefinite hunger strike here demanding the state government to review the Job Reservation Policy.

Speaking to reporters, Basaiawmoit said, “Our objective of staging the indefinite hunger strike today is to put pressure on the government to review the job reservation policy.”

Stating that they are not expecting the government to call them for talks, the VPP chief said, “What we want is for the state government to straight away inform us that the job reservation policy will be reviewed.”

He said that job reservation policy is the root cause of the problem being faced by the unemployed youth and it is not the roster system. “Roster is an effect and reservation as a whole is the root cause of the problem,” he said.

Terming the 1972 policy as “unfair and outdated”, he said there is a need to review the policy considering the current population differences.

According to the 2011 census, over 14.1 lakh are Khasis while the Garos are a little over 8.21 lakh.

The VPP president however maintained that he is not against the rights of the Garos to jobs but that he is merely demanding an impartial job reservation policy that would be fair.