Govt panel to recommend deletion of unrepresented tribes in ADCs

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaSeptember 26, 2019

SHILLONG: The state government-constituted committee headed by the district council affairs minister James K Sangma has decided to recommend deletion of the word ‘unrepresented tribes’ from the proposed amendment of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India.

The 18-member committee during its second meeting on Thursday also decided to incorporate the suggestions of the three autonomous district councils in Khasi, Jaintia and Garo Hills in respect to the number of seats for elected and nominated members.

It was also resolved that the provision related to the village council and municipal council should not apply in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills region except in the Garo Hills region which do not have elected traditional institutions.

The meeting was attended by the chief executive members of the three ADCs and representatives of Meghalaya Indigenous Tribal Constitutional Rights Movements (MITCRM), a conglomeration of traditional heads and NGOs which include NESO, KSU, FKJGP and GSU.

The committee was notified on September 4, to revisit the recommendations made regarding the proposed amendment of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution as per the draft –“The Constitution (One Hundred and twenty-third amendment) Bill, 2015.

After the meeting, James K Sangma told reporters that all the suggestions of the stakeholders will be formulated in the form of recommendations and observations to be submitted to the parliamentary standing committee, which is looking into the amendment of the Sixth Schedule.

“When the final draft (of the recommendation) is prepared, we will take the approval of all the members for necessary correction to be made if any, and after that we will send it to the parliamentary standing committee,” he said.

When asked, the minister said the committee has agreed to incorporate in its recommendation on the need to remove the provision in the amendment Bill which seeks to provide nomination to the “unrepresented tribes” in the autonomous district councils of the state.

“There is unanimity in the decision as everyone wishes that the word unrepresented tribes should be removed in term of nominated members and we will be forwarding this to the standing committee,” he said.

On the proposal to increase the numbers of seats in the ADCs, Sangma said the committee has decided to take on board the suggestions given by all the autonomous district councils.

“In so far as the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council is concerned, it was not very clear as to how many will be elected and how many will be nominated due to lack of clarity while in the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council, they want that 29 members to be elected and two to be nominated out of which one will be reserved for women,” he informed.

On the other hand, the minister further said that the committee will also recommend the need to insert a proviso to exempt the Khasi and Jaintia Hills region from the provision related to the establishment of a village council and municipal council.

He added this is because that both the regions have traditional institutions which are democratically elected and are self-governance institutions – “So there is a felling that the village council is not required due to the presence of traditional institutions.”

“However in the case of Garo Hills, we proposed to recommend that the village council will continue to prevail in view that the Village Council Act was passed in 1958 and that there is no traditional institutions,” Sangma said.

Later, chairman of the North East Social Organization (NESO) Samuel B Jyrwa said the MITCRM has suggested that the word ‘traditional institutions of self governance’ should be included in the amendment Bill, which will mean the dorbar hima, dorbar raij, dorbar shnong, dorbar elaka, etc.