Instead of quibbling about political affiliations and trying to destabilise the Khasi Hills District Council on the eve of elections, those wanting to contest and win the elections should sit and frame a road map within the boundaries of the Sixth Schedule and spell that out to the voting public. For too long the Councils have been only a power centre where politicians who have lost the legislative assembly polls sit and wait out until the next election arrives. It’s better to be an MDC and enjoy the perks than to be a defeated MLA with no fringe benefits. This is nothing new. It’s been a tradition that has also touched half a century.
For the kind of mandate that the Councils are given which is the custodianship of all resources such as the forests outside of the 4% reserved forests under the state government, it’s a tall order to keep watch over how these forests are being cleared at such a rapid pace. Charcoal burning which is a banned activity continues with gay abandon. Rivers which are also under the watch of the Councils are now slowly turning into large drains where people dump garbage or where car owners wash their vehicles. In fact, there does not seem to be any law against using rivers and streams for car washing. The Councils don’t have the wherewithal to watch over their resources. They do have forest guards but those have enriched themselves so well that some have even contested elections. The Councils also don’t seem to have a handle over how the Syiems conduct themselves. Nor do they have any control over the Dorbar Shnong. Each Dorbar Shnong is a law unto itself and the Rangbah Shnong runs the affairs of the shnong like a fiefdom. Some Dorbar Shnong don’t charge a percentage for land transactions (buying and selling). Some put a fixed percentage of the cost of the land/building. It’s a laissez faire sort of arrangement.
The Councils don’t have the resources for road construction or other development work. In any case that is not their brief but once in a while they get direct funding from the Centre for infrastructure but those are white elephants that are un utilised. In the present tenure KHADC has been getting funds from the World Bank for sanitation purposes and has put that to good use by acquiring garbage trucks and giving them out to Dorbar Shnong outside of Shillong city that have no garbage collection facilities. What the KHADC has not been able to do yet is create garbage management facilities and landfills in areas that are outside the municipalities. The District Councils cannot rest on their laurels and on tradition or customary practices alone and by trying to regulate human behaviour. They need to reinvent themselves to be relevant to the times. If they are the custodians of forests, how come those forests are rapidly getting bald. And what about climate change impacts? The Councils have to be seized of these new challenges and be ready to deal with them. Enough of politicking!
