By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The KHADC on Friday passed Autonomous District (Constitution of District Councils) Rules, 2013 amendment Bill, which seeks to delimit the Council constituencies, amidst protest and walk-out by a section of members.
Laitkroh MDC Carmel Sohtun (Independent) along with Jaiaw MDC Adelbert Nongrum (KHNAM) walked out of the House protesting the move of the Executive Committee (EC) to pass the Bill forcefully.
The dejected Laitkroh MDC even tore the copy of the Bill saying that he could not accept this attempt of the Council to insult the sentiments of the people of Laitkroh.
With the proposed delimitation, several areas falling under Laitkroh constituency have been attached to various other constituencies namely Mylliem, Langkyrdem and Sohra.
“It is totally unjustified that the Council decided to divide the areas under Laitkroh without taking the views of the people of the constituency,” Sohtun said while moving an amendment motion.
He said the Council carried out this whole exercise in a limited time period.
Sohtun even suggested that the nomenclature of the newly delimited constituency Langkyrdem-Laitkroh should be renamed as ‘Laitkroh-Langkyrdem’.
In his response, Pynshngaiñlang N Syiem, CEM, said that the Council cannot rename any delimited constituency “since the whole exercise was aimed at deleting the Laitkroh constituency.”
“It is not right to have doubts on the intention of the EC. We are doing this keeping in mind the interest of people of the area,” Syiem said.
According to him, once the bill gets the approval of the Governor, this delimitation would be effective during the upcoming the Council elections due in 2014.
Mawkyrwat MDC EK Raswai, while moving an amendment motion earlier, had urged the Executive Committee to examine the possibility of conducting the 2014 Council elections in delimitated Assembly constituencies.
“This would not create any confusion since there are 29 Assembly constituencies under the KHADC’s jurisdiction,” he said.Syiem, however said as the KHADC is an autonomous body, its delimitation will not have any ramification on the areas which are clubbed with neighbouring districts.
