By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Feb 14: The Voice of the People Party (VPP) on Friday urged the electorate to give the party a clear mandate to ensure stability in the two autonomous district councils and to end the “musical chair” game commonly played by the MDCs.
“It is important to elect one party to ensure stability in the council. A fractured mandate will bring instability which is not healthy,” VPP spokesperson Batskhem Myrboh said, pointing out that a fractured mandate will lead to instability and an Executive Committee (EC) which will not be able to deliver.
“We have witnessed how the functioning of the district councils has been affected due to the musical chair played by the MDCs,” Myrboh said.
The VPP spokesperson spoke about the need to uphold consensus based democracy which is possible only in the Dorbar Shnongs and other traditional institutions.
“We need to maintain and protect the democratic form of governance in the functioning of the traditional institutions at all costs,” Myrboh said.
Myrboh observed that the elected MDCs use the district councils as a tool to interfere with the internal matters of the Dorbar Shnongs, Himas, Raids and Dollois instead of protecting these traditional institutions, resulting in court cases due to the conflict between the district councils and the traditional institutions.
“We have seen politics in the appointment of acting Syiems and Sordars due to the political agenda of those who are at the helms of affairs,” the VPP spokesperson said.
He assured that if the VPP is given an opportunity to lead the KHADC and JHADC, it would ensure that the various traditional institutions are able to function without any interference from the council.
He said the top agenda of the party in any election is to educate people on clean politics and effective governance.
“We are committed to implement this if we are elected to form the new Executive Committee in the two ADCs,” the VPP spokesperson said.
According to him, despite proper policies, plans or budgets development will not take place without effective, clean and good governance.
Citing an example, Myrboh said that the government recently claimed that it managed to bring in over Rs 38,000 crore for development since 2018.
“Despite the tall claims of the government the various indicators suggest that the state is going down on all aspects,” the VPP spokesperson observed.
Citing another example, he said that Trading by Non-Tribal Regulation Act, 1954 paves the way for certain people to harass and extort money from genuine non-tribal businessmen.
“If we are able to streamline the council’s functioning, then the interests of the indigenous people will be protected and we can stop undue harassment of genuine non-tribals who apply for the trading licences,” the VPP spokesperson added.