By H H Mohrmen
The Hon’ble High Court has a point in ordering the state government to come up with a legislation to empower the Traditional Institutions and after all we must give the court the credit for waking us up from slumber. Had it not been for the court order we would still blissfully continues to live with our ignorance that the institutions that we are so proud of exist without any legal sanction. It was after the court order that the state government and then the respective ADCs came up with a draft bill to empower the Traditional Institutions in the state. The question is: are these knee jerk reactions going to solve the problem? Did we honestly take the alarm bell that the court rang to come up with the best law possible for grass root governance in the Khasi and Jaintia area of the state?
If one looks at the very recent stories reported in the press, one would see that the TIs are still in a state of confusion or to be precise, ‘they are in a world of their own.’ The first case in point is the conflict between the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council and the Dorbar of the Hima Mylliem. A cursory study of the case would help one understand that the conflict was due to the absence of transparency and the system is undemocratic and gender biased.
Another case reported in the press relating to the office of the Rangbah Shnong was an incident happened at Ummulong. A certain pressure group captured a policeman (red-handed) while he was collecting money from a truck on the NH 44 near the Ummulong police outpost. Later the Rangbah Shnong who is a well educated person clarified to the media that the policeman was not collecting money from the driver, but he just helped pass the betel nut to the truck driver. Seeing a policeman or a person in plains-clothes waiting for the trucks adjacent to the Ummulong police outpost is no longer a surprise. Anyone who has travelled on the Shillong-Jowai road would see this happening every day. Why did the RS make the clarification on behalf of the police in the first place? Isn’t this a case of abusing the office of the RS?
Lastly, is the case which has to do with the Eleka Narpuh’s objection to the government declaring Narpuh Reserve forest as Eco Sensitive Area. This makes one wonder and question what are the terms of reference of the office of the T.I.? What is it that they can do? Or is there anything that they cannot do? Or can they do anything they like under the sun? The ADCs or the State government should clearly state what the mandate of the TIs are. What are the do’s and the don’ts of the TI? Or can they just object and become stumbling blocks even for good projects or causes such as declaring Narpuh as ESZ?
In the first place the Narpuh reserve forest is one of the very few forests which are under the jurisdiction of the state forest department. Hence the government has every right to protect and preserve this pristine forest for posterity. Secondly, the villages on the fringes of the ESZ were consulted and made aware of the change of status in the forest. It is also important to note that the villages will receive many benefits from the forest, most importantly clean water. It must be noted that the portion of river Lukha which flows between the Narpuh reserved forests is still clean and free from any kind of pollution. It is only when it meets Lunar that the river gets contaminated. The greatest gift that the forest can give to the people of the area is pure clean water.
Are people going to lose anything if the RF is converted to ESZ? Is the ESZ going to have any negative impact on the tribal way of life of the people in the area? The people are not going to lose anything when the forest is converted to ESZ, but it will only help them continue with their traditional way of living close to the nature. In fact they will be the envy of their neighbours because they will only breathe clean air provided by the forest.
The Narpuh eleka has no locus-standi to protest against the move to declare Narpuh reserve forest an ESZ, because it was responsible for converting tribal land in the Narpuh area and selling it to the corporations. Isn’t it true that the duty of the TI is to protect tribal interests? And if so, then is allowing tribal land to be transferred to corporations in the interest of the tribals? Not only industrial sites for construction but as many as 8 mega cement plants were sold to companies. However, a large tract of forest land which has limestone deposits is now in the hands of the cement companies. Can this transfer of tribal land happen without the knowledge of the eleka?
Can Narpuh eleka still claim to be an institution for protection of tribal interest when it looks like it only caters to the interest of the cement companies? But the most important question is whether we can say that the protest is not as much in the interest of the tribals of the area but the cement companies? This is either a case of blowing some other trumpet or the eleka going beyond its brief.
The government should come up with a clear cut brief to regulate the functions of the institutions because they are not omnipotent. The government should also take note the point made by the court that the office of the TI should be under the purview of the RTI. If the TIs are involved in implementing government schemes and projects then there is no way that the TIs should not fall under the purview of the RTI. Many government schemes and projects fail because the TIs which are the implementing authority/agency misuse the funds meant for the projects. Many cases were filed against the secretary of the VEC for misusing the MNREG funds. Many school buildings or community halls are of substandard quality and sometimes are not even completed because of corruption. Therefore there cannot be power without responsibility. Hence the TIs have to be under the purview of RTI.
The legislation should also make sure that people who are elected to the office of the TIs should be duly compensated because there is no free lunch in the world and volunteerism will not work on a long term basis.
The state government is also right to restrict government servants from involving in the running of TIs or other Associations including religion. To say that barring government servant from participating in the running of TIs will affect the function of many dorbar shnong is sheer ignorance. How many dorbar shnong in the rural areas have government servants as their headman? Isn’t it true that most of the Rangbah Shnongs in the rural areas are farmers/ traders or even contractors? Isn’t it true that cases of government servants becoming Rangbah Shnongs are prevalent only in the urban areas and in the suburbs of the towns and cities? And don’t we have literate people in the villages?
The active involvement of government servants in association or even religious organizations affects their performance and decision making. For example if the chief secretary/secretary or head of other government department is a tymmen basan or a rangbah balang, it is very natural that he will be biased and show favouritism towards his religion or co-religionists. There are also cases where government machinery and time are used for association or church work and even government vehicles were used for the same.
There is no better time to address these vital issues; hence the government should do the needful. TIs are neither perfect nor are they omnipotent or sacrosanct and if we want to keep our tradition, there is only one way and that is to bring in changes which will make TIs more effective and relevant to our contemporary society. It matters not who makes the legislation be it the ADCs or the State government and better still if all the two institutions come together to bring the best possible grass-roots administrative system for the state that everybody will be proud of.