The Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) created under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution after solid arguments by the late JJM Nichols Roy in the Constituent Assembly, had served its purpose at a time when the tribes of Assam which included the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo people were all part of the composite State of Assam. They were created to ensure that the culture and traditions of the hill tribes are conserved and promoted and that they are able to administer their own institutions for that very purpose. After Meghalaya earned statehood, these ADCs no longer had any meaning. They existed as second tier legislative bodies because the so-called leaders of the Hill State Movement did not have the foresight to see that these institutions would wither away or serve a very limited purpose. And that is exactly what has happened. The three ADCs have become employment agencies where the politicians occupying the seats in the Executive Committee would employ their camp followers irrespective of whether there was enough work to do. As a result, the Garo Hills District Council has far more employees than it can pay. The same is the case with the other two ADCs. What is worse is the propensity of these Councils to carry on with a business-as-usual attitude without caring to account for the public money used. For years their accounts have not been audited and neither are the utilization certificate submitted. They have carried on with a nonchalance that is now being taken seriously by the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG).
It has taken the Office of the Governor to write to the Chief Executive of the State to push the Councils to get real with the accounts. There must be a lot of wrongdoing in these Councils. Some Members have even said that the moment the Councils are allocated funds they go on a spending spree without any policy on how to spend the amounts on public utilities. Naturally the ‘sarkari’ money is not considered worth accounting for. It’s taken as a freebie. But that’s not how public money is to be expended. Every rupee is to be accounted for. If the Councils cannot even account for the money they receive from the State and Central Governments how can they be expected to be judicious and accountable in their other dealings. How are they spending the money from toll gates both legal and illegal and their sundry collection from markets and forests etc?
A time has come when drastic action is needed. There is too much molly-cuddling in the name of protecting tribal rights. The tribes will not lose their scheduled tribe status just because the ADCs are abolished and the State Government is adequately empowered to look after the welfare of its people.
