TURA: After the sub-committee on amendment of Sixth Schedule decided to recommend removal of the word ‘Unrepresented tribe’, the Meghalaya Hajong Welfare Association (MHWA) has expressed unhappiness with the government panel for recommending the rash decision.
Speaking over phone, Vice President of the MHWA, A Hajong felt that the government along with the three major tribes of Meghalaya had disowned the minority tribes as non-indigenous and the minority community have been emotionally disintegrated by them.
“There is something called emotional integration in India. And we all emotionally feel that not only are we Indian, but we are Meghalayans too. But today, the government has made us feel like we are unwanted people within our own homeland,” Hajong said.
Hajong said that on the positive side, they have been given the opportunity to decide their own geo-political future as the government feels that Autonomous Councils under the Sixth Schedule is the exclusive right and domain of the majority tribes only.
“Rightly so, we are different and the existing provisions under the GHADC cannot help promote our cultures simultaneously with theirs. But we as a community are unhappy with the sub-committee,” He added.
The sub-committee had on Thursday decided to recommend to the Standing Committee of the Parliament regarding the decision to delete ‘unrepresented tribes’ from the amendment to the Sixth Schedule that seeks to nominate unrepresented tribes in the Autonomous District Councils (ADCs).
