SHILLONG: The Mawsynram Dorbar Shnong Executive Committee will meet on Thursday to decide on its future course of action on ostracisation of the 17 families for filing an RTI against the local fair price shop dealer of the village.
“We would decide on the various penalties to be imposed by the Dorbar Shnong against the 17 families in our EC meeting tomorrow,” Mawsynram Assistant Rangbah Shnong S Shangpliang said on Wednesday.
According to Shangpliang, they have been forced to take this drastic step in order to teach a lesson to these families who failed to respect the effort made by the Dorbar Shnong for a compromise between the families and the fair price shop dealer.
“Initially, these 17 families had agreed to make a compromise with the fair price shop dealer in front of the Dorbar Shnong Executive Committee,” he said.
But when the media was called to show the agreement between the two parties, the 17 families backtracked from their commitment, Shangpliang said.
“Their action has defamed the whole village. We never expected they would backtrack from their statement,” the Assistant Rangbah Shnong said.
After this incident, he said, a Dorbar Shnong was convened on June 4 to decide on the matter since it was beyond the control of the Executive Committee.
“It was in that Dorbar Shnong meeting where residents of the village both men and women unanimously decided to socially ostracise the 17 families to teach them a lesson,” he said.
On the allegation against the local fair price shop dealer, Shangpliang said 92 per cent of the people of the village are getting their quota of rice and sugar but admitted that there are possibilities that around seven to eight per cent of the villagers are not getting their allotted quota.
“We have gone through the BPl and AAY cards of the 17 families. It is not true that for the whole period of seven years (2002-2008) they are not getting their rice and sugar. We detected a few months on each calendar year during which these families did not receive their quota of rice and sugar,” Shangpliang said.
He also maintained that the Dorbar Shnong is not taking sides either with the dealer or the affected families.
CSWO moves NHRC: The Civil Society for Women’s Organisation (CSWO) has moved the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) against the ostracisation of the families by the Dorbar Shnong.
In a complaint submitted to the NHRC on Wednesday, CSWO said, “These families were denied of their right to food.”