TURA, April 7: Hopeful of turning the tide in its favour for the MDC polls to the GHADC, the Opposition Congress has released what appears to be a blueprint that it believes will strengthen the oldest autonomous council and eradicate the current financial crisis where employees have not been paid for close to three years.
Leader of the Opposition and former Chief Minister Mukul M Sangma released a booklet that pledges to ‘transform’ and ‘strengthen’ GHADC vesting it with powers and authority to function as a decentralised autonomous institution of self-governance with the devolution of resources from both the union and state government.
The document mentions the Congress aim to move for a “constitutional mandate” for the finance commission to recommend measures to augment the “consolidated fund of the state” to supplement the resources of the autonomous council which would help the GHADC, financially.
The party also states that it would move to upgrade the GHADC into a territorial Council, a similar demand long sought by the former ANVC militant outfit that signed a ceasefire with the government in the early 2000s.
Another demand in the document of the Congress aims to ensure equal distribution of funds for local area development and end the current trend where the ruling side benefits the most from the funding leaving out the Opposition members.
The Congress has claimed that it will abolish monopoly and other double taxation systems prevalent in the GHADC alleging that this arbitrary taxation system has a cascading effect on the economy and the general public as it escalates the prices of goods and commodities coming into the region from outside the state.
The other demands mentioned in the Congress ‘wish-list’ also include sharing of revenue with the A’king Nokmas, strengthening of the Village Council System, strengthening of the Administrative System, revenue generation, and prevention of influx by extending full support for the enforcement of the Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act 2016 by the state government to prevent ‘illegal immigrants’ into Garo Hills.
