Assam govt to tighten verification to curb fake tea garden reservation claims
CM Sarma announces new policy to prevent misuse of tea garden reservation, introducing verification in education & recruitment
CM handing appointment letters to youths from Tea Tribe & Adivasi communities on Nov 20 (Photo: @himantabiswa/x)
Guwahati, Nov 21: The Assam government is set to roll out a special policy with stringent verification mechanisms to prevent the misuse of reservation benefits meant for tea garden communities, after multiple cases emerged of individuals attempting to avail quotas using fake community certificates, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on Thursday.
He stated that the issue came to the light during the scrutiny of applications for medical admissions, where irregularities in community documents were detected.
“Since the time of medical admissions, we have seen that when we try to provide benefits to students from tea garden communities, some people attempt to take these benefits using fake certificates. This is something we can never accept”, Chief Minister cited.
Following this, the government separated the lists of tea garden communities in the Barak Valley and Brahmaputra Valley to better identify discrepancies during verification of medical admissions.
Sarma added that the method of verification used in medical admissions will now be expanded to recruitment procedures across the government. He emphasised that strict checks are necessary to ensure that only legitimate beneficiaries receive the advantages reserved for tea garden communities, who continue to remain economically and socially backward.
The Chief Minister said the forthcoming policy framework would tighten verification at the point of issuing and accepting community certificates. The enhanced scrutiny is expected to cover both educational admission processes and government job recruitments, where a three per cent reservation for tea garden communities is in force.
“In government jobs, to ensure that no one else takes advantage of the 3% reservation meant for tea garden communities, we must establish strict rules. Only then we will be able to support and uplift the genuine youths of the tea garden communities,” the Chief Minister said.
Reiterating the government’s stand on social media, Sarma asserted the proposed system is aimed at ensuring that only rightful candidates benefit from the reservation and other welfare schemes. The move, he said, is expected to strengthen transparency, accountability and protect the integrity of affirmative action measures.
IANS