SHILLONG: The Thma U Rangli-Juki (TUR) has raised objection to the government’s decision to pass the Meghalaya Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Act, 2017, without any ‘community participation’ or pre-legislative consultation.
The group has also listed a few amendments which it feels are necessary for the Act to ensure “transparency and accountability and efficient delivery of public services”.
“We hope that a proper and wide-ranging pre-legislative consultation is carried out before the amendments to the Meghalaya Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Act are made,” TUR said in a letter addressed to the chief minister.
In a statement to the press, TUR pointed out that the state council that is supposed to oversee and plan for social audit is not an independent body because all the members of the council are government nominees.
“Six months after the Bill was passed, the government decided to hold a small ‘consultation’ with select group of CSOs… TUR was one of the groups who were invited to this meeting where we presented our critique of the act and submitted a memorandum to the chief minister about the deep structural problems with the Act and the need for amendments,” the statement read.