TURA: Congratulatory messages continue to pour in for Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on his victory from South Tura constituency with a record margin in the by-polls.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah’s congratulatory notes to Conrad Sangma on twitter and subsequent messages from several chief ministers of the north eastern states, the Garo Hills State Movement committee has also applauded the young chief minister.
“The Garo Hills State Movement Committee extends its heartiest congratulations to Conrad K Sangma on his landslide victory. This shows the people of the region has full faith in his leadership and hope their aspirations will be fulfilled by the new government,” stated the GHSMC in its message.
“The general public underwent many hardships due to lack of good governance by previous successive governments which is perhaps the reason for the peoples’ mandate to the new government,” added Nikman Ch Marak, Chairman of GHSMC.
Urging the new government under Conrad Sangma to look into the demand for Garoland, the GHSMC mentioned that it was a genuine demand that arose out of discriminations against the bonafide Garo tribe who were deprived of their fair share in all respects and even the Khasis and Jaintias have fallen victim of this contentious problem.
“We are encouraged by the positive response of central ministers, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Minister of State for Home, Kiren Rijiju, during our bilateral talks in New Delhi last year. It is imperative for the state government to bring about a resolution pertaining to the creation of Garoland state in the assembly session and forwarding the same to the central government for its due consideration whereby the cherished aspirations of the Garos, Khasis and Jaintias can be materialized,” urged the GHSMC.
The movement committee is also calling on the government to ensure the long pending bill on Codification of Garo Customary Laws is given consent by the governor for smooth and timely dispensation of justice amongst the Garos.
“This bill was passed when NPP party was in power in GHADC and even now it is holding the same position. The government needs to get it assented by the governor,” it said.
In the light of the ongoing exercise for National Registration of Citizens (NRC) in neighbouring Assam, the GHSMC is demanding adequate force and police personnel be deployed at all porous inter-state and international border and setting up of Entry and Exit points at vulnerable locations to check any entry of possible illegal immigrants.
An effective implementation of the Meghalaya Land Transfer Act has also been sought from the MDA government in the state.
“Rampant land grabbing and illegal encroachment is taking place unabated in both government owned lands and Nokma A’kings threatening the demography of the region. Encroachers must be detected and evicted on a time bound frame and penalties be imposed on those guilty officers who allowed the encroachment,” stated the Committee.
It has called for restriction of facilities such as water supply, power, telephone connectivity, road construction, Aadhar cards, bank accounts, jobs, ration, smart and EPIC cards, driving licenses on those illegally residing on government and A’king lands.