KHADC to soon release a book on the Khasi clan system: CEM

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaOctober 24, 2024

The Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) will soon release a book on the clan system of the Khasi community. This will help in the proper implementation of the KHAD (Khasi Social Custom of Lineage) (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which finally got the assent of the Meghalaya Governor on Thursday.

Informing this, KHADC chief Pyniaid Sing Syiem said, “A deep research work has been done regarding the clan system of the Khasi community. This will help in the implementation of this Act. There are 28 areas of research and very soon we are publishing all of them in the form of a book. The study has been completed and is on the way for publication.”

As per the study, there are more than 3000 plus clans in the Khasi community.

The research is being sponsored by the KHADC in collaboration with the state government. A total amount of Rs 50 lakh has been sanctioned for the research work, which took almost 10 months to complete.

Talking about the Amendment Bill, Syiem said, “The principal Act is called the KHAD (Social Custom of Lineage) Act, 1997. We have incorporated in this amendment Bill, the clan administration because lineage and clan, we need to incorporate as one body so that’s why we tabled this bill and we brought this amendment and the clan administration is incorporated in this bill.”

“Now, it is very clear that any clan or kur in the Khasi Hills region should register themselves with the KHADC because we have seen in the past few years, there are some who took advantage that even to issue the clan certificate, they issue on their own without the consent of the clan members. This is very risky and therefore, we feel this should be incorporated in this bill,” he said.

“Any clan, who wish to register, should come to the district council. With the consent of all clan members, they should come and register themselves and we will issue a certificate. These clans should also elect their office bearers so that they will have the authority to issue clan certificates to all clan members,” he further stated.