No tussle between state govt and Governor: CM

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaNovember 26, 2019

SHILLONG: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Tuesday categorically denied that there is any tussle between the office of the Governor and the state government over the issue related to the political development in the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC).

“I don’t think one has to look at it as a tussle (between the Raj Bhavan and Secretariat) as these are procedural matters,” Sangma told reporters while reacting to the recent decision of the Governor Tathagata Roy to reject the government’s recommendation for Administrator’s rule in the KHADC.

The chief minister also informed that the government is yet to go through the points raised in the file notings sent by the governor.

“We will have to see what the governor had said in the file may be he had his legal and constitutional points that are there. Once we go through that we will take a call on how to move forward and see what has to be done,” he said.

Not happy with the Governor’s decision, deputy chief minister Prestone Tynsong had said that the governor should have consulted at least the chief minister, deputy chief minister or the minister concerned before taking a decision on the matter to avoid any ‘misunderstanding’ between the state government and the Raj Bhavan.

“Otherwise it is good if the governor can handle everything… I am telling you that I will be the happiest man so that any bills that come (from the ADCs), let them go directly to the governor and they need not don’t send to the government for any recommendation,” Tynsong had said.

The recommendation for Administrator’s rule in the KHADC also came following the collapsed of the United Democratic Party (UDP)-led United Democratic Alliance (UDA) executive committee.

The UDA-led EC lost the confidence of the House after the Chairman of the Council Pynshngain N Syiem and two other NPP MDCs and one PDF MDC voted in support of the No-confidence motion brought by the Congress in the just concluded winter session.

This has paved way for the formation of the new executive committee-led by the United Democratic Forum (UDF) backed by the Congress after the Governor’s approval of the election of Latiplang Kharkongor as the new KHADC chief.

Asked, Sangma said the state government will do a post mortem on the issue before deciding on how to move forward.

He said that issue in the KHADC may be an internal matter and that he would be meeting the MDCs as well while informing that some of them have also met other political parties like the UDP and the HSPDP last night.

“We are trying to resolve the issues that are there and find out what are the reasons and what are the problems. We will do a post mortem and decide on how to move forward on this,” he said.

The chief minister however said that he is sure that nothing is going to happen in the GHADC, where a No-confidence motion has  been moved against the executive committee led by the NPP.

When asked, the chief minister however said it is already too late to talk about doing away with the autonomous district councils (ADCs) in the state.

“The right time was earlier in 1972 when the statehood was given that was the time this thing should have been debated but I think now the district council has come out as an institution and it has got its own powers, own identity and own areas of jurisdiction and has been functioning as another layer of government. At this point in time arguing and going into that aspect is a bit too late. It should have been discussed when the state was formed as earlier when the ADCs were there it was mainly because we were part of Assam and recognition was given to different tribes,” he said.