Goa, Jun 18 (The Hindu): A group of citizens has condemned the Goa government for being careless and severely deficient by subverting the Constitutionally-mandated reservation policies.

In a petition addressed to Goa Governor Mridula Sinha on Thursday, petitioners led by Amita Kanekar, including representatives of affected communities, social activists, concerned students, members from the national and international academic community, and others pointed to contractual appointments in colleges where reservations were completely bypassed.

The petitioners demanded that a series of steps be taken by the government and educational institutions to follow the law as per the Constitution of India.

In a strongly-worded petition to the Governor of Goa, they said that the number of reserved positions filled in Goa’s public sector and educational institutions, was ‘far less than prescribed and in fact, one of the lowest in the country’.

The reason for this, according to them, is that government, public sector and educational institutions ‘systematically and deliberately flout reservation norms’.

They gave instances of how this was done by (a) not implementing reservations in promotions, (b) not creating post-based rosters for contract or temporary vacancies, (c) not reserving posts when advertising contract vacancies, and (d) by not following the 27 per cent reservations for OBC rule. The petitioners also made a series of demands in this regard for implementation by the government and educational institutions.

First, that the office/institution should make public post-based reservation rosters on their websites and notice boards. Second, that the institutions should prepare separate rosters for contract vacancies and make them public. Third, institutions should follow all rules and procedures for recruitment of reserved category candidates. Fourth, the government should conduct a census of its employees and declare the number of reserved positions occupied by people who do not belong to that category.

The petition also came down heavily on educational institutions that were flouting reservation norms. It declared that all educational institutions (including those conducting self-financing courses) must (a) declare the total number of seats available in each subject and show the number of seats reserved by category in each subject, (b) make admission on the basis of reservation in each subject, and (c) display the merit list, number of seats, general and reserved seats, and admissions according to these, on their websites and their notice boards, beginning with the academic year 2016-17.