By HH Mohrmen
Perhaps the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council is the last of the Councils to send its views, comments and recommendation on the draft bill of the Home Ministry; namely the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2012. Nevertheless as the saying goes, ‘better late than never.’ The views, comments and recommendations of the council were placed in the House on the 15th July 2013. The bill focuses on devolution of powers to Sixth Schedule areas, not covered by the 73rd and 74th Amendment Acts and also augmenting state funds to supplement the resources of the Autonomous District Council.
The letter from the Ministry of Home Affairs, dated 6th December 2012 was received by the office of the Chief Secretary of Meghalaya on 14th December 2012 and the District Council Affairs could only communicate the same to the respective ADCs of the state on the 14th January 2013. It took the JHADC almost half a year to send its views, comments and recommendations despite the fact that the Ministry of Home Affairs has requested the State Government for its comments within December 2012. This is just to bring to light the speed at which the various departments and Councils carry out their duties.
It goes without saying that the Sixth schedule which is as old as the Constitution of the Country needs to be reviewed because the administration of each of the tribal areas in the state of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram differs varies from one to the other. With regards to the powers and functions of the ADCs apart from those subjects vested by the Sixth Schedule like management of forests, establishment of village and town councils, appointment and succession of chiefs and headmen et al, the Karbi Anglong and NC Hills Autonomous Council have been given additional autonomy for law making on certain subjects and 30 additional subjects have been entrusted to these Councils for administration by the state government of Assam. And in case of Bodoland Territorial Council 40 more subjects have been entrusted to the Council, along with law making powers on these subjects. The government of Mizoram and Tripura have also entrusted some subjects to the ADCs for their administration, but the state of Meghalaya has not done so.
Coming back to the JHADC views, comments and recommendations, the Council recommended that the term Village Councils as proposed by the MHA should be substituted with Rural Area Councils. It was also recommended that the RACs should function in a party-less manner and members of the RACs should be elected or nominated by respective village durbars as per their traditional customary practices and the traditional chiefs like the Daloi and Sirdar and the MDCs of the area should be the ex-officio office bearers of the RAC. The main objective of this Bill is devolution of powers. Further the Bill suggests that the elections to the VC/RAC be held on adult franchise as is practiced in the Panchayati Raj Institutions. Now, even churches are using the adult suffrage model to elect their church elders because election by consensus is not free and fair and is undemocratic. Hence, not only the VCs/RACs should have a fixed tenure but even the traditional heads if they are to be relevant in the contemporary society should also be elected by adult franchise and have a fixed tenure.
The views of the Council with regard to the subject of Municipal Area, are that he word ‘Municipal Area’ be substituted with ‘Municipal Council Area’ but the JHADC questions the section of the bill which empowers the governor instead of the ADCs to notify the area as Municipal Area/Municipal Council Area. Again the JHADC recommended that the MDC of the area and the Traditional Chiefs of the elekas should be ex-officio members of the MA/MCA. The question is can the same Daloi/Sirdar be members of the VC/RAC and also the member of another MA/MCA? or for that matter how many VC/RAC and how many MA/MCA can one Daloi or Sirdar be a member of? The question is relevant because in the case of Jaintia hills, the Elaka of the Daloiship comprises of many villages which sometimes include urban areas. So if the Daloi is also the member of certain VC/RAC can he also be member of the MA/MCA? The other pertinent question is what is the need of the local MDC to be member of the VC/RAC or MA/MCA which falls in his constituency? Again how many VC/RAC or MA/MCA can one MDC be member of? If the MDC or the Daloi/Sirdar is ex-offcio member of all the VC/RAC or the MA/MCA in a particular constituency/eleka then the question is how convenient can that arrangement be?
The Amendment Bill proposed by the MHA which is also in consonance with what has been successfully practiced in the running of the Panchayati Raj in the country has also recommended that one-third of the total number of seats in each Council shall be reserved for women. The JHADC in its wisdom proposed that this recommendation be dropped. The reason given by the JHADC is that Parliament has not yet passed the Women’s Reservation Bill. What the JHADC is missing is that the entire exercise which culminated in the proposal for Amendment of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution is to empower the people and not just the Councils. The ADC must also understand that it is only when all the citizens are empowered that democracy will be successful and that until and unless the people are educated and empowered democracy will not flourish. By recommending that the paragraph 2(7)(i) of the proposed bill be dropped it is obvious that the JHADC is still governed by the archaic ideas that only those who sport a moustache can be members of the Dorbar.
The JHADC has also recommended that the number of seats in the Council be increased from present strength of 29 +1 of which 29 are elected members and 1 is nominated, to 46 elected + 4 to be nominated. Again the question is what is the approximate numbers of voters in a constituency? The point is that even now with only 29 constituencies, we have some which have only 3000 plus voters. The constituency with the largest numbers of voters is Khliehriat with 11, 000 plus constituents. If the two districts are further divided into 46 more constituencies the average total numbers of voters will perhaps be less than 2000. The question is how small can an MDC constituency be and how small can the number of voters be?
This is a critique on few of the views, comments and recommendation made by the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council, Jowai on the Draft Bill of the Home Ministry; namely the Constitutional (Amendment) Bill, 2012. This issue needs to be debated not only within the respective District Councils but it needs to be debated in the public domain because it is a matter related to governance at the grass roots level. The idea of the MHA is also to break the gender barrier in the traditional institutions and to bring in a more enlightened system of gender balance vis-à-vis the Panchayati Raj. If this purpose is defeated and the proposed amendment becomes just an exercise in concentrating power with those who already wield power then the MHA would have got into an infructuous exercise. This Bill is meant to empower people right up to the grass roots, which is something that has been missing in the Councils. The MHA should take note of the Councils’ resistance to devolve power to the people.