From Our Correspondent
Tura, Oct 21: For possibly the first time in the entire country, an election was held last week to choose office-bearers for the development committee of the Tura Shamshan Bhumi after the High Court of Meghalaya mandated as such under the supervision of the Deputy Commissioner of West Garo Hills.
The election for the formation of the committee came after a member of the former committee approached the High Court calling an interim committee formed by the Deputy Commissioner as illegal.
The interim committee was formed after various residents approached the DC seeking a change of the Bhumi committee as it had been in place for more than 5 years then. The DC (2018) had ordered an inquiry into the matter at the Tura Municipal Board (TMB) CEO’s office which was overseen by a magistrate who suggested that an election was necessary and an interim committee was formed until election was held.
The inquiry involved all development committees in the Bazaar area of the town.
Following the case, the HC deemed it necessary to hold elections in which all voters from the Hindu community were eligible to vote.
Interestingly for the election to the committee, the Superintendent of Police of WGH was made the returning officer while the deputy commissioner was to oversee law and order.
“There was a delay in the commissioning of the election for various reasons and elections were delayed by about 2 years. We were finally able to complete the same this week with the results being declared today,” informed a source.
Three teams from the community became part of the election process with voting being undertaken on Saturday. The results were declared Monday afternoon with team two comprising the likes of residents Prabin Panthi (president) and Sanjay Saha (secretary) emerging victorious by a little over 1,000 votes. Team three came in second while the former committee (team 1) which had filed the case in the HC stood third.
More than 5,600 people voted during the Court mandated election.
The voting used paper ballots which were counted from 7 am this morning in the compound of the office of the DC.
“We are happy that the new committee has been formed and as members of the Hindu community look forward to taking up issues with relation to the Shamshan Bhumi that have been pending for long. We look forward to cooperation from all people and would like to thank the administration, the police and the election officers for the smooth conduct,” stated newly elected secretary, Sanjay Saha.
