The Hynniewtrep National Youth Movement (HNYM) on Thursday took out a 2km rally in Shillong, seeking a law that ensures 80 per cent jobs to educated indigenous unemployed youth in the state’s private sector and an employment policy protecting their rights.

The HNYM, set up on September 10, 2008 to protect the rights of the indigenous people of Meghalaya, has set a 10-day deadline for the National People’s Party (NPP)-led coalition government in the poll-bound state to meet their demands.

The rally started from the civil hospital in the Meghalaya capital and passed through the DC office, state secretariat and the BSNL office before ending peacefully where it had started.

The trigger for the twin demands has been the “negligible” employment of youth from the state in private companies operating there.

“There are a number of private companies in the state, mainly cement and steel companies, but most of their employees, from the management level to the lower rung, are from outside the state. We want this situation to change. In their place, we want 80 per quota in private sector jobs for our indigenous educated youths,” HNYM president Louis Dohtdong told The Telegraph.

He added: “ I cannot give you the exact figure of the educated unemployed because the government itself cannot provide these figures but around 1 lakh youth graduate every year and most of them are unemployed.”

The HNYM president said they had submitted a memorandum with these two demands to the government on July 1 with a 45-day deadline to implement the same.

“We had even sought an appointment with the chief minister last week on the issues raised by us but the government appears indifferent. Therefore, we took out the rally today (Thursday) to remind the government to do something for the unemployed youth,” Dohtdong said.