SHILLONG, Aug 29: The Jaintia Students’ Union (JSU) has cried foul over the transfer of a large chunk of Jaintia Hills region to Karbi Anglong (then Mikir) in Assam, in the year 1951.
In a petition to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, the JSU has demanded that the said part of Jaintia Hills should be “retransferred” to Meghalaya under Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC) “by repealing the Notification No.TADR/31/50/148 dated April 1951.
According to the union, the smallest abode of the Jaintia Hills left of their larger kingdom (vide map in Appendix A) was “unconstitutionally detached, transferred and mechanically tagged with the non-adjoining and truncated Mikir (now Karbi Anglong) only for administrative convenience by the then Governor of Assam in exercise of his powers under para 1 to the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution through the Notification No. TADR/31/50/148 dated the April, 1951”.
They said that the British annexed the Jaintia Kingdom in 1835 and confined the Jaintias to their hilly country which was ratified by the Constituent Assembly according to the Constitution of Independent India approved in 1949 and promulgated on January 26, 1950.
Sadly the then Government of Assam, against the will of people, detached a large portion of the Jaintia Hills comprising one Dalloiship (Labang-Nongphyllut), one Sirdarship (Langsoh-Mynriang), a large part of Raliang Dalloiship, known as Pangam Raliang, which all together consist of nearly half Jaintia Hills, the JSU said.
According to JSU, several meetings held between the two state governments and between the two Autonomous District Councils to solve the issue during the last 70 years have yielded no results.
“We therefore request you to resolve the issue of Block-1 on the principles outlined above to enable to return back or reunite Block 1 to Meghalaya as is right under law and the Constitution of India,” the Union said.
