‘Bureaucrats are playing a foul game’
SHILLONG: The A’”chik Matgrik Kotok on Friday wrote to the chief minster asking him to constitute a separate committee for Garo Hills on Sixth Schedule Amendment.
In his letter, the chairman of the organisation, Bernard N Marak, said that there should be a separate committee for the Sixth Schedule amendment for Garo Hills since the amendment is being proposed based on the ‘Garo Settlement’ which was signed by the ANVCs.
“We know the basic problems of Garo Hills and through our negotiation the amendments have been proposed to the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. Kindly do not allow any changes without our recommendation as it will be a betrayal of the ‘Garo Settlement’ which was signed through the Agreed Text for Settlement. We know that various changes have been made at the bureaucracy level to sabotage the fund which was supposed to be funded directly to the Councils,” Marak said in the letter.
Reiterating that any changes to their demands and the agreement signed would be a betrayal of the people’s aspiration, he said that it is mandatory to form another committee especially for Garo Hills and they should be included like it was decided in the last Joint Monitoring Committee in Delhi.
“In the last meeting, my group was intentionally misinformed about the timings of the meeting. We were informed that it will be at 2 pm but the meeting was held at 11 am and no information was given to us. Here we know that the bureaucrats are playing a foul game as they want to benefit from the funding pattern which is aimed to benefit the grass root people,” he said in the letter.