TURA: Meghalaya Government headed by Chief Minister, Mukul Sangma has faced allegation of violating the Agreed Text for Settlement signed with Garo organizations, which has remained unimplemented even after three years.
Chairman of A’chik Matgrik and former militant, Bernard Rimpu Marak in his letter to the Joint Secretary Home, North East in-charge, Satyandra Garg alleged that the first para of the agreement which aims in maintaining the culture and identity of Hill Tribals has been grossly violated.
“The State Government has intentionally delayed and dishonored the Agreement by not implementing the Agreement in its true spirit. The State Level Committee has not been formed including our members and they have not even followed the decisions of the Centre Level Monitoring Committee under your leadership. In last meeting, it was decided that members of the organizations would be included in every decision and implementation of the ATS, but till now we have not received any information, on a contrary the Chief Minister is laying foundation stones for projects approved through the ATS, taking all credits to himself and his political party. It was also decided to forward the complete lists of cadres who availed the packages and to withdraw the cases in the courts. But none were executed by the State Government,” Marak said.
Stating that the Agreed Text for Settlement (ATS) focuses in strengthening the grassroots level democracy and local self-governance in the hill areas of Meghalaya, especially in Garo Hills, Marak claimed that this had made the government insecure which kept the agreement in abeyance till now.
“The ruling political parties have violated the Hill identity of the tribals, particularly in Garo Hills. They grabbed our lands without acquisition, they created general mauzas and constituencies. They renamed hill roads as NH, introduced municipality in the Hill District and many more. They even took control of the Autonomous District Council which was created through the Sixth Schedule for Hill Tribals making it into a political institution, with sole objective to strengthen their political parties. They even mocked the ATS signed with the Centre and made attempts to give wrong impression to the people against the agreement going to the extent of duplicating our demands at the State level,” Marak alleged.
In order to strongly take up the matter Marak also informed of the formation of a body- ‘Protection and Empowerment of Traditional Rights and Autonomy in the Hills’ to create awareness on the contents of the agreed text.
“The rights of the Hill people have been grossly violated and it is time to strengthen the Traditional Bodies at the grassroots level for development and progress of the Hill people through implementation of the Agreement in true spirit,” he added.