By H H Mohrmen
Recently there was a call by the leaders of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) and the traditional heads to strengthen or give more power to the Councils but a section of society have demanded that the ADCs be abolished altogether because they believe the Councils are no longer relevant. True, there is no better time to debate and review on the relevance of the Autonomous District Councils in a tribal area now and the state of Meghalaya is a classic case for carrying out this exercise.
The Sixth Schedule is an instrument of the Constitution which was designed to protect the interests of tribals when most of the tribal areas were part of the larger, composite state of Assam. But things have changed now; we have a state of our own. Meghalaya is a tribal state where majority of the people who live in the state are local tribals and almost all the elected representatives to the legislative assembly are also tribal. So, the question is how can there be a threat to the people when we already have a state of our own?
When we talk about the relevance of the ADCs in the state, the first question that comes to my mind is ‘protection from what?’ Why do we still need protection? If we still feel insecure even after four decades since Meghalaya was carved out of Assam, the question is whom should we blame? The insecurity persists partly because the ADCs have failed us. In the more than four decades of its existence, let us see how the ADCs have performed and whether they have achieved the goals that were envisaged in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.
If we take the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council into consideration, it has become infamous for misappropriation of funds. If a study is conducted on the performance of this ADC, one will find that there are several cases of misappropriation of public money by those in power. Even the Comptroller and Auditor General had made an adverse remark on the Council’s way of maintaining their accounts but not much has happened except punishment and transfer of a few officers.
But the issue that irks young people the most is the recruitment process (or in many cases the absence of any process) in the appointment of employees in the ADC. And even if interview was called and due process was followed, at the end of the day only the candidates who have the support of the MDC in power are appointed. The JHADC was in the news a few days back for making back door appointments and then regularising the same.
Employment in the JHADC has reached saturation point; some have even concluded that it is a sinking ship because of irregular appointments like this. JHADC now employed more than the required man power and there is no more space to accommodate the staff. Some staff do not even have proper seats.
Take the case of Lower Primary School which was the subject under the Councils as per the Sixth Schedule. Why did the government have to take it away from the ADCs? It is because the ADCs in the state have not only failed the District Council Lower Primary School teachers and the students but the people of the state altogether. Another case which made JHADC compromises its position vis-à-vis the State government is the collection of royalty from minor and major minerals. The royalty was earlier collected by the respective ADCs but now it is done by the state which in turn releases their share in a piecemeal manner.
The Constitution has mandated the ADCs the with responsibility of protecting and preserving the culture and tradition of the tribal people in the area, but what have the ADCs done in this regard? What is culture? And how do we protect that which is evolving with time? Take language which is part of the culture for example, isn’t it true that the Khasi, Pnar, War, Maram, Bhoi language is evolving with time? Words or items that our grandparents used are no longer popular now and it is not part of the vocabulary anymore. If the ADCs are really serious in their efforts to promote our local language then how many MDCs still send their kids to study in the LP schools in which the medium of instruction is Khasi or Garo?
Among the elites in Shillong, English is more popular than Khasi. They are more conversant in English than in Khasi and of course it is fashionable to speak in English even amongst the Khasis in Shillong. Even our God/gods now have evolved with time and they prefer prayers offered in English than in Khasi or Pnar. Can the ADCs stop the indigenous language from declining when the people themselves prefer to speak English to Khasi?
The ADCs are supposed to protect land rights of the local people, but what has happened now? Take the case of eleka Narpuh as an example. People very soon will be landless in the area because a large chunk of the land is now owned by the cement companies. In Jaintia hills farmland or agriculture land and even community forest can easily be converted to private land for mining and construction purposes, which creates more problems than solution.
Rivers are the subject of the District Council too but what have the ADCs done to protect our rivers? Wah Umkhrah is gone and all major rivers in Jaintia hills are polluted and now it is the NGT and not the JHADC which will be able to save Myntdu from going the wah Umkhrah way. How many more rivers will be polluted before the ADCs wake up from their slumber to save them?
The funniest imbroglio involving the KHADC is the Meghalaya Urban Development Agency building bylaws. Those in the KHADC who oppose the implementation of the bylaws in the rural areas speak of MUDA as a kind of external agency intruding in the tribal areas. What is MUDA? What is the purpose of the building bylaws? MUDA is the state government agency and bylaws are meant to regulate construction of houses, considering the fact that Meghalaya is an earthquake prone area. Why is the KHADC acting like a dog in a manger? The law is meant to protect the people and the objective is to prevent catastrophe from happening in the event of natural calamities. The state government hopes to achieve this goal by implementing the law, so why is KHADC against it?
The ADCs are now becoming merely a temporary refuge for junior politicians; it is like a training ground or a springboard to prepare the MDC to become an MLA. All MDCs have one goal and they all aspire to one day become MLAs. Give them a choice and they will opt to be MLAs than MDCs. Of late we have also seen the conflict between the State Government and the ADCs, but the conflict is superficial because the MDCs will take a new stand once they become MLA.
The point therefore is that even in spite of having our own state and we still feel insecure, then who do we blame? Can we blame the outsiders (Dkhars) for the mess that we are in? Can we blame others for the kind of political leadership we have now? Who elected them and put them on the pedestal of power in the first place? The problem is not only do we not have good leaders in the Legislative Assembly but that the MDCs in the ADCs are considered second to the MLAs. This can be concluded from the fact that recently, leaders who held membership in both the State Assembly and ADCs chose to retain membership in the former when they were given the choice. Now we realize the situation and the condition that the ADCs are in. But we have only ourselves to blame!