TURA, May 25: Former militant leader and Tura MDC Bernard Marak has accused the Centre and the state government of violating the tripartite agreement signed with the ANVC factions in 2014 and warned of legal action against them for their “betrayal”.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the former ANVC(B) chief accused the state government of delaying the implementation of all the points agreed upon in the tripartite deal.
Marak said that after signing the agreement, the state was supposed to form a State Level Monitoring Committee and meetings were supposed to be held every six months to monitor the implementation of the Tripartite Agreement, however even after a decade no committee has been formed nor any meetings held to monitor the agreement. “All these years, they cheated us, giving us false hope. Now we are left with no option but to serve them legal notice for violating the Agreement,” he said.
“Through this Agreement, we (the ANVC) were assured of a better life but instead we were targeted, apprehended and slapped with multiple cases”, Marak said.
Highlighting the points of the agreement which include strengthening the traditional system, promotion of local self governance, transfer of 13 state departments to District Council, direct funding to the District Council, among others, Marak said instead of implementing these points the state government hijacked the benefits of the Agreement to the state departments. He added that the NPP-led Executive Committee in the GHADC misappropriated Centre’s funds against GST, for which show cause was issued to GHADC multiple times.
“Departments like Health, Education, Transport, Forest, Registration of Births and Deaths, ST certificates, documents related to land like Non-encumbrance, PRC etc were unlawfully taken over by the state instead of giving it to the Autonomous District Councils,” he added.
“ANVC groups were betrayed, the whole tribal communities were betrayed and the projects were hijacked by the state government leaving the District Council in debt,” Marak alleged, while challenging Chief Minister Conrad Sangma to prove his leadership by honouring the tripartite agreement instead of making irresponsible statements on projects sanctioned through the pact.
Marak further said that Tura Medical College is an outcome of the Agreement and that the Chief Minister should first hold a meeting before taking any decision on the project.
