SHILLONG: Continuing with his fight against the Scheduled Tribe status of Chief Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma, Tennydard Marak has now called for a mass movement against the misuse of the ST certificate by the Chief Minister.
In a statement issued to the media on Sunday, Marak blamed all the sitting legislators for not airing their views on the matter after the Supreme Court, on January 20 this year, had asked the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes to dispose of the matter with eight weeks.
Marak alleged that when the issue was taken up earlier by the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes seeking comments and action taken report from the Meghalaya Chief Secretary within 30 days from September 19, 2013, the Chief Secretary not only deliberately delayed furnishing the report, but successfully misguided the Commission stating that the PIL filed by him (Marak) had been dismissed by the High Court of Meghalaya.
According to Marak, the High Court dismissed the PIL merely on technical grounds and not on merit and thereby “the Chief Secretary was successful in misguiding the Commission”. Marak said that the recent direction of the Supreme Court asking the Commission to dispose of the matter within eight weeks indicates that the Commission had failed to discharge its duty on the basis of the misguiding report of the Chief Secretary.
Marak further said that earlier, the matter was traced by Monindro Agitok, a genuine ST Garo candidate of Ampati, who had opposed the election of the Chief Minister in 2008, but he failed to get justice as the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Tura, had failed to address his grievances and dismissed the petition citing technical inadequacies.
He also made an appeal to all, irrespective of caste and creed “to raise the voice against the menace of bogus caste certificate issued in a routine manner by the concerned authorities and voice against the illegal occupation of the post of the Chief Minister by Dr. Mukul Sangma on the strength of the bogus caste certificate obtained fraudulently by manipulating the truth”.