SHILLONG: Meghalaya Governor Banwarilal Purohit approved administrator’s rule in GHADC on Tuesday.
The State government has made it clear that there was nothing political about recommending the administrator’s rule.
District Council Affairs Minister Prestone Tynsong said the South West Garo Hills deputy commissioner will be the administrator.
Tynsong said the government’s intention to recommend the administrator’s rule was to ensure that the GHADC Budget is passed.
“We want to make it clear that the government is not bothered who forms the next executive committee but our concern is that the Budget was to be passed by March 31,” he added.
According to the minister, the government is not playing any politics as indicated by NPP leader Conrad Sangma.
“The MDCs are playing politics leading to the breakdown of the executive committee and it has nothing to do with the chief minister or the District Council Affairs minister,” Tynsong said.
The passing of the Budget was scheduled on March 30 but on the same morning around 9.30am, the CEM resigned though the no-confidence motion against him was listed as the last item of the day.
According to Tynsong, the chairman of GHADC had no other option but to adjourn the House sine die following the CEM’s resignation.
After the chairman and the West Garo Hills deputy commissioner sent the resignation letter to the District Council Affairs Department, the same was forwarded to the governor for his acceptance on March 30 evening.
The recommendation of the government was that the governor can accept the resignation of CEM and fix the date for the election of the new CEM.
The government had also suggested April 3 as a convenient date for holding the election.
Since there was no feedback from the governor, an emergency cabinet meeting at the official residence of the chief minister around 9.30pm on March 31 decided to recommend the administrator’s rule considering the need to pass the Budget, Tynsong said.
He added that the government was acting according to the convention from 1953 that says if the Budget is not passed, administrator’s rule has to be applied so that the deputy commissioner can pass the Budget as it happened in the case of JHADC in 2011.
Following this, on April 3, the governor wanted the list of senior officers who can look after the affairs of GHADC after the government had suggested only the name of the West Garo Hills deputy commissioner.
Later on Tuesday evening, the governor approved administrator’s rule entrusting the South West Garo Hills deputy commissioner to take over the administration of GHADC.
This is the fourth time that administrator’s rule has been imposed in GHADC since 2014.