HNYF slams govt for violation of tribal land rights
SHILLONG, Dec 20: The Hynniewtrep National Youth Front (HYNF) on Friday said the power of the Invest Meghalaya Authority (IMA) according to the provisions under the Meghalaya State Investment Promotion Facilitation Act, 2024, is in contravention of the Meghalaya Land Transfer Act of 1972.
It said the facilitation law seeks to create a land bank, implying the power to acquire land to allocate to investors.
In a letter addressed to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, HYNF president Sadon K Blah said the IMA has been made the agent of land acquisition in favour of non-tribal entities.
He said sections 6, 8(2)c, 8(2)g, 31, 34, 35, and 36 of the MSIPF prove that the IMA and its CEO are a mere facade of the operational reality of the Act.
Blah further said these sections give overarching sweeping powers to the Governing Council and the High Powered Committee, both chaired by the Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues for the commercialisation of land in Meghalaya.
“This will ultimately convert the ruling dispensation into neo-feudal lords of the state. The above-mentioned sections of the MSIPF is the implied conversion of the Sixth Schedule areas into the Fifth Schedule areas which is against our constitutional security of land rights,” Blah said.
He observed that Section 34 of the MSIPF is “highly pernicious” as it empowers the Governing Council and the High Powered Committee to “sweep all our customs and usages under the carpet in favour of the facilitation of land acquisition and allotment of land to non-tribal entities.
He said Section 36 of the MSIPF empowers the Governing Council and the High powered Committee to modify, abrogate, or even bend the Act to their convenience.
According to him, the sweeping power of the government, as empowered by this Act, is unprecedented and not acceptable in the state.
Blah further observed that Section 39 of the Act grants legal immunity to the chairman of the Governing Council and the High Powered Committee and all their members, implying that the “neo-feudal lords are beyond the reach” of judicial scrutiny.
“With the ease of land facilitation for the investors, the already existing land syndicate, land grabbing mafias will have a heyday, whereby the IMA will be the secondary land bank and the land syndicate (in collusion with the people in power) the primary land bank,” the HNYF president said.
He said the MSIPF Act set no ceiling either on the quantum of land to be acquired or a time limit for land acquisition, which implies the “eternal sellout” of the state.
According to him, the projection of a $10 billion economy with 5 lakh job opportunities is a hypothetical claim of the MDA government as it is not clear about the quantum of land, the categories of industries to be accommodated, and the expected time of hitting the $10 billion mark.
“We would request the government to put the matter on hold and invite the stakeholders for a better understanding of the same. Issues concerning land must be a legislative policy,” the HYNF president said.
The government’s move has drawn severe criticism with the KHADC on Thursday adopting a resolution to urge the state government to seek the views and opinions of all stakeholders, including the council, before implementing the Meghalaya State Investment Promotion Facilitation Act, 2024.
KHADC CEM, Pyniaid Sing Syiem said the traditional institutions play a pivotal role in protecting the custom, usages and the land tenure system of the Khasi community, and the MSIPFA will come into conflict with several provisions of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District (Regulation and Administration of Land) Act, 2021 and affect the sentiments of the general public at large.