TURA: The Mukul Sangma government has been alleged of violating the Agreed Text for Settlement (ATS) signed by Garo organisations that has remained unimplemented even after three years.
Chairman of A’chik Matgrik and former militant Bernard Rimpu Marak in his letter to Satyendra Garg, joint secretary, North East in-charge, alleged that the first paragraph of the agreement that aims in maintaining the culture and identity of hill tribals has been grossly violated.
“The state government intentionally delayed and dishonoured the agreement by not implementing it in letter and spirit. The state-level committee was not formed by including our members and they did not even follow the decisions of the Centre Level Monitoring Committee under your leadership,” Marak said.
He declared 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.
“In the last meeting, it was decided that members of the organisations would be included in every decision and implementation of the ATS but till now we have not received any information. On the 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 list of cadres who availed of the packages and to withdraw the cases in the courts. But none were executed by the state government,” he added.
Stating that ATS focuses on strengthening the grassroots level democracy and local self governance in the hill areas of Meghalaya, especially in Garo Hills, Marak claimed that this made the government insecure.
“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.
“The rights of the hill people have been grossly violated and it is time to strengthen the Traditional Bodies at the Grassroot Level for development and progress of the Hill people through implementation of the Agreement in true spirit,” he added.
