Govt-ADCs on the same page over Sixth Schedule amendment: James Sangma

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaNovember 13, 2019

SHILLONG: District Council Affairs Minister James K Sangma said the state government and the three autonomous district councils (ADCs) are on the same page with regards to the amendment of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India.

This was informed after a meeting convened by the chief minister Conrad K Sangma with the representatives of the three ADCs of the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo Hills region here on Wednesday.

James told reporters that the three ADCs were briefed about the present status on the amendment of the Sixth Schedule, which is pending with the parliamentary standing committee of the Rajya Sabha.

“The three ADCs and the government of Meghalaya are on the same page in regards to the concerns that are there on the amendment Bill of the Sixth Schedule,” he said.

This was also after the delegation led by James K Sangma had recently submitted the views and suggestions of the state government before the parliamentary standing committee in New Delhi, which include the need to delete the word ‘unrepresented tribes’ from the amendment.

However, the opposition Congress in the KHADC had strongly opposed the decision of the state government to change the recommendation for increasing the number of seats in the KHADC to 40 instead of 31.

Asked, the minister said the issue on the number of seats is not so important because the only issue which is of concern and raise by the three ADCs was more towards the proposal for nomination of unrepresented tribes in the ADCs.

“The three ADCs have been very clear and there is no ambiguity in the matter that they do not want the word unrepresented tribes included in the amendment,” he added.

The minister however admitted that the demand that the number of seats in the KHADC should be increased only to 31 was raised during a meeting of the committee headed by him.

“However, after that we realized that it is more important to go into the real issue which will affect the ADCs and the state rather than go for other things. There is a shift in that and we focus on important issue,” he said.

He also said that the Agreed Text of Settlement signed with the disbanded Garo militant outfits (ANVC and its breakaway faction ANVC.B) has also played its part on the matter. “It (agreement) has only mentioned about the need to increase the number of seats but has specifically mentioned the number,” James said.

Meanwhile, the meeting has also discussed on the Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Amendment Ordinance, 2019 passed by the state Cabinet recently.

“We discussed this matter just to inform them (ADCs) that this has been approved by the state Cabinet and presently the rules are being framed and that if they have any concerns about it on whether it will caused harassment or inconvenience to people including tourists visiting our state. We want to allay those fears and to assure that this will in no way caused any inconveniences as we will have a sort of a mechanism which will ensure that the process will be very smooth,” he said.