ON Wednesday the Government called for a discussion on the proposed Tenancy Bill. The invitees were college and university students. The meeting was chaired by Prestone Tynsong, Minister, Environment and Forests .To invite just one constituency of the State’s population for a discussion that evidently is beyond their comprehension since many of them are not yet house owners, make us wonder what the intended purpose of the discussion is. Is it to solicit the support of students for the Tenancy Bill and therefore to wean them away from the ILP brigade? Perhaps having lost the first round of discussions where no one seemed to be in support of the Bill and which then got drowned in semantics, the Government thought it could appeal to the youth constituents. Government could not have made a bigger blunder. The Tenancy Bill has several gaping loopholes. It is meant to frustrate both house owner and tenant by putting them through stringent legal rigmaroles. Going by the tenant profiles which is largely of the student variety from the six states of the region and the temporary nature of their stay, house owners and tenants would be spending more time in swearing affidavits. As was pointed out earlier the concept of relatives/family also defies the notions of relatives as understood by the indigenous tribals where extended families are also considered family.
There are other inherent flaws such as the District Task Force. There are too many of such task forces that are non-functional because the Deputy Commissioner (DC) is too burdened with work and has no time for yet one more Committee/Task force. The DC is empowered to strengthen the infiltration check gates under his/her jurisdiction and as part of normal duties to also conduct surprise checks in areas considered vulnerable to influx such as coal mines. But they have not done this in a long time. It is the vigilantes who are able to nab infiltrators and pack them off. This does no good to the image of the government. It is a tacit admission that Government has failed in its prime duty of preventing the entry of unauthorised persons. A quick survey would reveal plenty of unauthorised settlers without proper documents. What prevents government from showing that it is indeed concerned about infiltration/influx by pushing out those without valid papers? Is it any wonder them why pressure groups doubt the sincerity of the Government? Bottomline – the government must not only be doing its duty but must appear to be doing it sincerely and diligently. The fiasco of Wednesday shows that Government did not do its homework. It should have anticipated that the student population that is likely to come for the discussion on the Tenancy Act would have been from amongst the pro-ILP brigade. Others would have been intimidated by peer pressure to speak up for what they believe in even if they wanted to. Pity that Government does not possess even an iota of native wisdom!
