SHILLONG, March 11: Leader of Opposition, Mukul Sangma, on Thursday flagged his concerns over the alleged lack of transparency in the recruitment of employees in all the autonomous district councils of the state.
“The nepotism in the ADCs has taken place over the past many decades. Now we cannot actually point fingers specifically to an individual as it has not occurred only at a single time or over a period of time. There was no regulation in recruitment and it will continue unless we correct it,” Mukul said, reacting to the statement of Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, who had pinned blame on the then Congress-led executive committee of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) for the current financial predicament.
Referring to the recent order of the Lokayukta, he questioned whether the chief minister is proud of the state of affairs in the GHADC. “One of his earlier CEMs is likely to face prosecution by the law of the land,” Mukul remarked.
It may be recalled that the Lokayukta had ordered action against officials of the Council and several contractors involved in the alleged siphoning off funds from the implementation of projects under Williamnagar Constituency.
The order was passed by the Chairperson of Meghalaya Lokayukta, Justice (Retd) PK Musahary, on February 26 last after detailed hearing on the matter based on the complaint lodged by a social activist, Nilbath Ch Marak.
Meanwhile, the Opposition leader informed that the discrepancies within the ADCs can be rectified by way of financial empowerment. “When we were in the government, we wanted the ADCs to receive separate grants like the Panchayati Raj through the recommendations of the Finance Commission. Such recommendations or awards were not recommended as far as ADCs in the state are concerned,” he informed.
Mukul also said that they had earlier taken up the issue with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, and Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
“A committee was constituted to look into the matter following our continuous engagement with the Centre. This culminated into the acceptance of the facts by the Government of India that the ADCs must be provided with special funds for various interventions which were required to be vested with the district councils,” he stated.
Mukul recalled that during his tenure as the chief minister, the GHADC and KHADC had received special funds amounting to more than Rs 100 crore, while the JHADC got close to Rs 100 crore. “This money was meant for making the ADCs capable of coming up with interventions to fulfil the aspirations of the people and to somehow respond to the call of the duties of the councils,” he affirmed.
According to him, all these funding have now been transferred to the ADCs as special fund and direct funding.
The Opposition leader, however, stressed upon the need for proper management and fiscal discipline in the ADCs including empowerment of traditional institutions in sync with the provisions of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.
“The ADCs and traditional institutions are capable of doing justice to the mandate of the Constitution. But they were not provided with the kind of support they needed,” Mukul opined.