SHILLONG, June 4: Congress MP, Vincent H Pala, on Friday called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi apprising the latter of the need to include Meghalaya as a beneficiary of devolution of funds made available for rural development and governance.
In a letter to the prime minister, Pala said Meghalaya, which is exempted from the 73rd Amendment Act, has for long been deprived of the funds, that are otherwise devolved to most of the States and Union Territories covered by this Act, as validated by the Finance Commission’s allocations to local bodies — both rural and urban.
He said that despite such an allocation sanctioned by the 15th Finance Commission for Meghalaya for the period 2021-2026, he would like to ensure that the allocations of grants by the Finance Commission are given in future as an entitlement to Meghalaya rather than an ad hoc release of central funds for the development of villages, which according to Pala are in the lowest tier of the local body governance structure.
Informing that the local bodies in Meghalaya are governed by tradition-bound customary laws, which do not conform to the local body governance norms as defined under the 73rd Amendment Act, Pala said, “Local headmen implement decisions taken in their respective Dorbars, the traditional village institutions, on development works or welfare activities, and also take the role of a judge during dispute settlement.”
He also beseeched the Prime Minister’s Office to constitute a commission that will study the finer details of their working and suggest measures to legally, constitutionally and financially strengthen them. “Such a decision in consultation with the Finance Commission would be deemed a gesture of appreciation by the Centre to preserve the tradition-bound local governance systems in Meghalaya that have stood the test of time, and at par with Panchayati Raj institutions elsewhere in the country,” he said.
“We would invoke your oft-proven sense of probity and justice in getting the above proposal examined by domain experts and Finance Commission and other constitutional bodies in order that the state of Meghalaya is given its rightful dues for strengthening its rural governing structures in consonance with its traditional customary laws,” the MP added.
