By Everton Lyngdoh
Micheal Syiem must be congratulated for showing the wisdom and guts to file a PIL on the issue of existence of district councils in Meghalaya. I recollect the efforts made by Micheal Syiem since the 1980s in his campaign-for this common noble cause. He will be remembered for his far sightedness and statesmanship he has shown during the last 30 year and his name will remain as long as these beautiful hills exist. The PIL deserves consideration on the following grounds:
The District Councils were set up in Meghalaya( the then composite state of Assam) under the 6th Schedule of the Constitution of India with the motive to provide self rule to the hill tribes of Meghalaya to emancipate themselves and to be at par with the rest of the state of Assam. Now that the same people have attained statehood we have our own legislators, our own government and a large brigade of government employees belonging to our own tribes. Self rule is hence attained. Therefore, the need for the district councils has become redundant.
As per the rules of 1952 of the district councils there was one CEM and two Executive members for each council. But as of today there are around 5 executive members in each council which has further increased the liabilities of the councils in terms of salaries, perk, etc. This has caused huge unproductive expenses to the councils that survive with grants from the state government and taxes from the general public, resulting in unnecessary losses to the general public, while in return the councils are doing nothing except political fights amongst MDCs.
The arrogance of the District Councils in Meghalaya is exhibited by their undemocratic acts. For example the professional tax being imposed by the KHADC is without justification. Professional tax is collected forcefully at source from all government employees and PSUs even outside its jurisdiction ( normal areas of Shillong). By parting with a portion of their income the citizens do not get any services in return from the district councils with only tall talks about protection of customs and traditions.
By virtue of Para 12-A of the Sixth Schedule where laws of the state government prevail over the laws of the district councils, it is amply clear that the district councils are only a symbolic entity which deserve to be done away with.
The recent state of affairs in the district councils in the state, be it back door recruitment of staff, horse trading in KHADC, petty fights amongst regional parties for the sake of power in the District Councils, involvement of district councils’ functionaries in anti national activities like being sympathizers of militant groups and involving in criminal activities, making demonic and undemocratic laws such as the Village Administration Bill, non holding of elections in GHADC for more than a year, financial crisis in the JHADC, land grabbing by MDCs in Jaintia Hills, etc. are all indicators of district councils being nothing but another power centre besides being an and outdated and problematic establishments. These are the establishments that pull our society backward towards a barbaric type of tradition, instead of allowing the society to prosper towards development to cope with the progressive living in the 21st century.
The District Councils are not extending any services to the citizens of the Meghalaya. Power/electricity, water, PDS, waste management’s/ cleanliness, housing, education, health and all basic services to mankind are done by the state government. The Professional Tax / Trade Licences, and other tolls/fees collected by the district councils are not spent for the welfare of the people; instead the entire money is enjoyed by the MDCs who use the district councils as their personal kitties.
The latest attempt by district councils to regulate building construction is to add insult to injury. Regulating construction is not child’s play. It involves engineers, architects, inspectors and a battery of ministerial staff to be appointed to man the establishment whereas the amount of revenue collected from the process is mere peanuts. In the process the white elephants will multiply and one fine morning we will find the district councils begging the state government to take back this problem like they did in the case of primary education in 1980s after they have corrupted the education system in the state. Or the district councils would outsource the building regulation to a profit making agency or vendor who will extort the public and add further mess to the system.
The tribals of Meghalaya at present are not the same as they were in the 19th and 20th century. We have progressed tremendously and we should be at par with the rest of the communities of the country in no time. As is being seen, most of the MDCs are amateur politicians and persons with narrow outlook. Hence, having district councils only obstructs our zeal to progress and blocks our aspirations by creating an attitude of dependency.
Series of Finance Commissions of the Union of India had taken a sympathetic view of the district councils of Meghalaya by extending several hundreds of crores of rupees to them to take up projects like waste management, health and sanitation, fisheries, education, social welfare, and promotion of art and culture. Alas! None of the district councils have garbage dumping grounds of their own, except Jaintia Hills and that too the ill-maintained dumping ground at Jowai. The district councils have mercilessly misused and abused the money by lavish spending for the leisure of the CEMs and the MDCs. Their wickedness has reached such heights that they shamelessly convert the money into MDC schemes, and share the booty amongst the MDCs. Ultimately when asked for the Utilization Certificates by the Government of India none of them could furnish the certificates. In this way they have created a bad name to the people of Meghalaya in the eyes of the Government of India and that is why they did not get even a sing pie from the 14th Finance Commission, whereas the states of Arunachal, Mizoram and other North eastern states are getting several hundreds of crores of rupees from the 14th Finance Commission.
The state Government could have saved thousands of crores of rupees had there been no district councils in Meghalaya and the same money could have been spent in development purposes for the benefit of the people of the state.