CM’s advice to pro-ILP groups on use of RTI Act
SHILLONG: A day after Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma asked the ‘disbelieving pro-ILP groups’ to use the RTI Act to avail the copy of the repeal of Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation Act, 1873, from the Garo Hills, CSWO president Agnes Kharshiing hit back at the former stating that he was just a public servant and should not direct “the NGOs and the public to seek information from Delhi.
Dr Sangma, on Tuesday, had suggested the pro-ILP groups to seek information from the Union ministry of home affairs on the issue.
Kharshiing pointed out that when the Chief Minster and his Cabinet members along with those in the Law department have time and again mentioned that the repeal of the Act is available, it is inappropriate on their part to direct people to get the information from elsewhere, especially from as far as Delhi.
“Providing a copy, which only mentions in the footnotes, that the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation 1873 was repealed from Garo Hills, cannot be accepted, as this was made available in the website of DONER ministry which has also got a map of Meghalaya made when there is still a dispute,” Kharshiing asserted.
Of claims that the Union Home Ministry had sent a letter rejecting the ILP on grounds that it will be an ultra vires to article 19 clause (d) and (e) of the Indian Constitution, Agnes Kharshiing said that Clause 5 of Article 19 of the Indian Constitution clearly states that “Nothing in sub clauses (d) and (e) of the said clause shall affect the operation of any existing law, in so far as it imposes, or prevent the State from making any law imposing, reasonable restrictions on the exercise of any of the rights conferred by the said sub clauses either in the interests of the general public or for the protection of the interests of any Scheduled Tribe.”
Making another allegation, the CSWO leader said that the Government has inserted amendments to Land Acts which were never amended in the Legislative Assembly. Kharshiing claimed that the ILP would protect the land of the tribal people of the State.
She also asserted that campaigns and protests are constitutional rights and cannot be construed as evil designs or criminal conspiracy.
“There is the IPC that deals with the various acts of crime and the use of the Meghalaya Preventive Detention Act (MPDA) and the Meghalaya Maintenance of Public Order (MMPO) is an act of cowardice on the part of the Government,” she said, adding that the Chief Minister should clarify on the education scam which has affected hundreds of applicants and the guilty should be booked under MMPO
“Book the land mafias under MPDA and MMPO for causing destruction and loss to people’s homes affecting women and children at Umsawli and Mawtari,” she demanded.
It may be mentioned that the Chief Minister had questioned the intention of the Thma-U-Rangli-Juki (TUR) in demanding the repeal of the MPDA and MMPO in the State.
