By PD Nongrum
Off late there has been a lot of enthusiastic debate on the Ruling of the Hon’ble High Court of Meghalaya passed in WP(C) No. 363 of 2014 wherein the Court has also made some observations on the Roles of the Dorbar and the Rangbah Shnong. Through your esteemed daily I too would like to join in this debate and offer my point of view.
On the observations made by the Hon’ble Justice quote, “That the Headman of a locality did not derive any right from law……to issue NOC” unquote; In my opinion this is factual, correct so there is nothing to complain about.
However It is the District Administration, the Government, the Banks and other institutions in our State that insist on such NOCs from the Headman and at times, even making them mandatory for opening of Bank accounts, availing of loans, opening of shops, building permissions etc. If such NOCs are insisted upon by the authorities then the Headman is only obliged to issue them as and when the residents of the localities approach him.
That the Hon’ble High Court has stated thus, “Government, District administration and Police are directed not to indulge or ask people to obtain NOC from Headman.” This only confirms the fact that it is the Government institutions that have insisted on NOCs from Headman.
On the statements appearing in some section of the press that the powers of the Rangbah Shnong have been stripped off, to this I would say: “How can someone be stripped off something which that someone never had.” While one may agree with the observations and directives of the Hon’ble High Court, it is a fact that, in the Khasi & Jaintia Hill of the State of Meghalaya, the Dorbar Shnong are presently the grass roots institutions which have been assisting the administration in the implementation of Government “Health & Welfare”, “Development” schemes and other programmes as well. Some of these are the Midday meal under the ICDS, the Pulse Polio immunization programme, NHRM insurance, Voter Enrollment to cite a few . On many occasions the Dorbars have also assisted the District Administration in the Maintenance of Law & Order.
This judgment should be a wakeup call to all of us. For too long the State Government and the District Councils have not given enough importance to this issue and now that the Court has pointed out the lacunae in the present setup of the Dorbar Shnong, rather than appreciating the sensitivity of the issue, it seems that most Politicians and “wannabes” are trying to gain political mileage out of it.
The stand -off between the Government and the Dorbar Shnong has in many ways affected us badly. Be it the total collapse of the Civic administration, the pendency of the National Population Register and implementation of Development schemes and many more. In the end it is we the citizens who are the real losers. It is time for the Dorbar Shnong to evolve and adapt to the changes for if they fail to do so they will fade into redundancy.
My sincere appeal to the Synjuk Ki Dorbar Shnong, the various Dorbar Pyllun, is please get off your high horses, talk with the Government and try to resolve this impasse. For the Government to give recognition to the Dorbars and the Rangbah Shnong a political decision may have to be taken and for this the elected MPs and MLAs are the people’s representative are responsible to bring about legislations, defining the Roles & Responsibilities of the Dorbar Shnong as grass root institution in the State of Meghalaya. We may call these institutions by any name we want to. In the rest of the country they are the Panchayats.
The Prime Minister of India is working overtime to turn the country’s economy into a trillion dollar economy and other states are moving on the fast track road of development, whereas we in Meghalaya are still struggling, that too in a very confused way, to decide as to which form of administration will suit us best. Some group wants to lead us back into the medieval age and be governed by Grand Councils of “Syiems & Bakhraws”. To them I would advice to look up the dictionary meaning of the word “Republic” and realize that in an Independent Republic country like India ,we cannot and should not permit such groups to take us back to the past.
Poor governance coupled with the overlapping of too many administrative authorities has retarded the positive growth of our beloved state, that today the bitter truth is that, the educated youth in our state are finding it very hard to find jobs. Many of them are now self- employed as Taxi drivers, laborers, and peons.