Nokma body opposes draft bill on grassroot governance

TURA: The Council of Nokmas has strongly opposed the draft bill ‘The Meghalaya grassroot institutions Governance Act, 2015′ saying that it would directly infringe upon the fundamentals of the existing Garo practice of traditional Nokma System of local self government.
“The Bill, if passed, will completely uproot the traditional Nokma and Clan System of the Garos. Traditionally, the Garos have only two institutions of self government, namely, the Nokma and his Village Council,” the Council said in a statement.
The Council pointed out that barring reserved forest and private individual lands, Nokmas were the owners of all lands in Garo Hills on behalf of their wives’ clans and argued that the proposed draft Bill would go against the basic custom of transacting land matters as it brought in the village and sub village council members as witnesses in the transactions.
While also strongly opposing the creation of the councils in every village and sub villages, the Council of Nokmas felt that the composition of the General Assembly with boys and girls from 18 years and above as proposed in the draft Bill would create more problems rather than bring a solution.
The Council had raised strong objections to the proposed bill earlier also and letters were submitted at the time to the members of the Drafting Committee with copies also being sent to Ministers concerned. The council expressed shock that no notice was however taken of the objection by the committee who re-issued the same bill for approval.
Meanwhile, the Council of Nokmas has decided to constitute a committee consisting of experts of Garo Laws and Customs to draft the bill for village administration and empowerment of traditional bodies in Garo Hills.
It also warned that if the Committee goes ahead with the finalization of the bill despite strong protests and reminders of its objections, it would be left with no option but to take to the streets and demonstrate their objection openly along with all the other NGOs of Garo Hills.