SHILLONG: City-based pressure group Thma U Rangli Juki (TUR/Commoners’ Upsurge) has said that the KHADC Village Administration Bill 2014 should not be ratified without wide consultation and redrafting.
In a statement issued to the media, TUR said that such a legislation should ensure devolution of powers to Ki Khun Ki Hajar or the people at the village level, participatory, inclusive and deliberative mechanisms and transparent and accountable democratic self-government that is structurally and financially independent.
“The Village Administration Bill 2014, is a flawed piece of legislation, internally inconsistent, legally untenable and violative of our constitutional rights,” the TUR said.
TUR, after studying the draft Village Administration Bill 2011 and the Bill passed by KHADC in 2014, said that the provisions of the law from its Draft to the Bill as passed, have only further diluted in favour of undemocratic and autocratic provisions.
“The language of the Bill is exclusionary and patriarchal and hence unacceptable. By using masculine terms, the Bill exposes the strong gender biases and discrimination held by the representatives,” the TUR said.
According to the pressure group, the crucial clauses of the Bill have been designed to usurp powers that are conventionally vested with the Dorbar Shnong or the people by centralising authority with the Rangbah Shnong and the Executive Committee of the District Council – offices that are themselves non transparent and unaccountable and require urgent reforms.
The Bill has no intention to fulfill the constitutional guarantee of equality in a democracy, and election is a necessary condition to be fulfilled and not an option, but by legally sanctioning nomination as a valid method of choosing the Rangbah Shnong through Section 8 (1), the Bill makes the Dorbar Shnong as a whole merely a token body, the pressure group said.
“Rather than democratizing the process, this section restricts choice to only male members of the village and also to only certain clans for some villages. The Bill fails to provide for Universal Adult Franchise by disenfranchising more than half of the indigenous population by denying women full electoral rights through the notion of ‘Teh Rangbah’ (Section 6 & Section 8). Secret Ballot System that will aid in ensuring fairness and legitimacy to any election is not even mentioned”, Kyrsoibor Pyrtuh and Angela Rangad said on behalf of TUR and added that the role of the Dong and the Rangbah/Dorbar Dong needs to be clearly laid out.
They said that the attempt of the Bill is to snatch away village autonomy and peoples’ sovereignty by centralizing power with the Executive Committee of the District council through veto provisions particularly Section 19 that prescribes that the Executive Committee can summarily suspend or supersede the Rangbah Shnong, the Executive, the Village Development Council and any Committees formed in the village for gross violation of provisions of this act.
Moreover, Section 13 provides for setting up of a Village Development Council which creates a new parallel structure that may impede decision making, accountability and transparency.
“The Indigenous people of Khasi Jaintia Hills deserve a better legislation that will uphold their democratic rights as there is a need to have inclusive pre-legislative consultation to amend the Bill keeping in mind availability of the Bill in the local language, they said.
