From Our Correspondent
TURA: The Garo Students’ Union (GSU) has decided to campaign aggressively for barring non-tribals from taking part (both contesting and voting) in Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) elections.
According to GSU president Tengsak G Momin, the movement started with a poster campaign on Tuesday to be followed by picketing of GHADC office on July 18 and 19 and a public rally at Tura on July 23.
“We are not against anybody but the Sixth Schedule is meant for protection of tribal of Meghalaya. Therefore, non-tribal should not be allowed to contest in GHADC elections,” Momin said demanding creation of a separate electoral roll for the GHADC.
He also said that GSU called the campaign to put pressure on GHADC to enact a law to bar non-tribal from contesting district council elections in Garo Hills.
Earlier, the GSU had given the GHADC a deadline till July 4 to respond to its demand for the creation of a separate electoral roll.
However, due to the recent law and order situation in the region the council authorities had requested the union to wait while assuring that it was discussing the issue.
With an aim to curb the problem of influx way back in 2008 the GSU had deleted more than 8000 names of non-tribals from the GHADC electoral list in Tura alone.
However, it was later found that the problem persisted especially in the plain belt areas of Garo Hills. (With agency input)