The 125th Amendment Bill, 2019, which seeks to strengthen the Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) is still pending in Parliament. As usual there is complete silence on this Bill in Meghalaya. However, there also appears to be no urgency on the part of the ADCs from other states such as Assam, Tripura, Mizoram etc., which have functional Councils and which are always struggling for resources. Apart from granting more financial powers to the Councils through direct funding from the central government to enable them to carry out their governance measures more effectively, the Amendment also proposes to create Village Councils and Municipal Councils under the ADCs.The purpose of the 125th Amendment is to ensure greater grassroots democracy in Sixth Schedule Areas. Above all it also seeks to reserve at least one-third seats for women in the ADCs. Over and above that the Councils will also be granted powers to propose plans for economic development and social justice at the grassroots level. This would meet the needs of last mile decentralised governance in Meghalaya where basic needs such as water supply and roads are still a distant dream. This Amendment should have been welcomed and the Sixth Schedule states should have persuaded their members in the Rajya Sabha to push for passage of the Bill. But for some reasons the states are dithering to further empower the Councils.
The Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in February 2019 and was referred to a Standing Committee for examination. The Committee submitted its report in 2020. But since then the Bill remains in cold storage with no state pushing for its passage. In fact, it was Meghalaya that sought exemptions from establishing Village and Municipal Councils on the plea that the Dorbar Shnong were already in existence although the mode of selection of office bearers to the Dorbar Shnong is not exactly a democratic one. The Parliamentary Committee found the exemption to be undemocratic. The Bill also proposes to increase the number of members in the ADCs but the criteria for that were not clear. It also proposes to include smaller tribes as being eligible to vote and hold office in the ADCs to reflect population and tribal diversity.There are of course concerns that overlapping authority could create governance conflicts besides lack of clarity on delimitation of constituencies. The Bill looks at a set of clear rules for the composition and functioning of new Councils and stronger framework for the powers and functions of local bodies which are not very clearly outlined as of today. The 125th Amendment would ensure that ADCs could prepare their own development plans and coordinate better with the Dorbar Shnong apart from influencing welfare programmes. As a result development could become more locally tailored to the needs of tribal communities.
Meghalaya was one state that raised concerns before the Parliamentary Standing Committee stating that if passed the Bill could create more bureaucracy and even lead to conflict with the traditional institutions. The Government apparently is not very happy about more financial devolution to the Councils for that could have political fall-outs if the Councils were to perform to their optimum and address the grassroots governance needs. The problem is that there is no public pressure on the political leadership of Meghalaya to press for passage of the Bill. In fact, Meghalaya is the only 6th Schedule State that is resisting passage of the 125th Amendment.
