Poll-bound towns brace for protest
From Our Correspondent
TURA: A day of protest is expected to take place on Tuesday morning in four major towns of Garo Hills, including the three district headquarters, with agitating civil and student organisations rallying their supporters against the government’s proposal to hold municipal elections in four municipality boards.
The Joint Action Committee of social and student organisations (JAC) from Garo Hills is calling for a mass public meeting at all four major locations to mass public support against the proposed elections that take place next month.
Rallies, beginning from 11 am, would take place at Tura Chandmari playground, Williamnagar Rongrenggre field, Baghmara and Resubelpara in which student leaders would address the crowd on the detrimental impact of the proposed polls.
“We will seek the peoples’ views on how to go about the opposition to the polls since they are against the interest of the tribal people,” informed senior JAC leader and the Garo Students’ Union general secretary John Miltu A Sangma.
He added that the agitation would in no way go against the recent verdict of the Gauhati High Court which had directed the State Government to hold direct polls to the four municipal boards of Garo Hills before the end of September. “The court verdict was on the state government and not a direction to us,” claim the GSU general secretary.
With the State Government been given the orders to hold the direct polls and the agitating NGOs hell bent on opposing it the battle lines are clearly drawn on each side.
For the civilian population this will be a return to the weeks of uncertainty that plagued Garo Hills last year when the civic polls were first opposed and a major law and order situation that came close to getting out of control.