By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, June 30: The Meghalaya BJP, an ally in the MDA government, has accused successive governments of eroding tribal safeguards by allowing municipal bodies to operate in Sixth Schedule areas and ignoring commitments to restore town committees under the autonomous district councils (ADCs).
State BJP vice president Bernard N. Marak recalled that the Congress government in the late 1970s had replaced the traditional town committees with municipalities on the assurance of greater fund flow, yet the same municipal apparatus has continued to channel all local body funds ever since.
He maintained that the very existence of municipalities in Meghalaya infringes Article 243-ZC of the Constitution as well as Paragraph 2.3 of the 2014 Tripartite Accord with Garo groups, which stipulates that civic administration should be returned to elected local bodies under the ADCs.
Marak noted that the accord also required a commission, now ten years overdue, to study and recommend the administrative and legislative framework for handing over civic duties, but neither the Congress regime of the day nor the present government has taken that step.
The BJP vice president rued that despite official websites listing town committees in Ampati, Nongpoh and Nongstoin, no duly elected bodies are functioning there.
Pointing to fresh friction on the ground, the BJP leader said tribal traders in Tura had been forced to meet at Najing haat to protest illegal taxes still being levied by lessees of the weekly market, even after a Revenue Court order cancelled the patta issued to the municipality’s chief executive officer.
According to him, the local Nokma and her clan have since declared that no unauthorised collection would be tolerated on their Akhing land.
Marak urged the state government to halt what he called continuing violations of tribal rights by municipal authorities and to begin negotiations to scrap the municipalities and reinstate duly elected town committees under Meghalaya’s ADCs.