Empowering Nokmas in Garo Hills
SHILLONG: Taking a dig at Chief Minister Mukul Sangma’s claim to empower the Nokmas, the Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) on Wednesday asserted that it is a scheme to ‘divide and rule’ the people of the State.
In a statement to the press KHNAM working president Adelbert Nongrum said that it is a device of the chief minister to disrupt the system of governance of the indigenous people in Khasi and Jaintia Hills and strengthen his hold in Garo Hills.
Terming the chief minister’s speech at the 14th Annual Nokma Council conference at Ampati as ironic, Nongrum argued that the chief minister had spoken of empowering the Nokmas in line with the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution while the same time the State government is bent on snatching the powers of the traditional heads in Khasi and Jaintia Hills and framing its own laws for the same.
Nongrum also observed that this ‘divide and rule policy’ will invite conflicts among the three tribes of the State.
Meanwhile, gearing up for the upcoming by-election to the KHADC and the Assembly polls in 2018, the party has invited applications from youths of the State to be part of its election committee.
The party has asked interested individuals to contact party leaders James Ban Basaiawmoit and Thomas Passah, chairman and secretary of the election committee, respectively.