SHILLONG, MAR 11: Deputy Chief Minister in-charge Home and District Council Affairs Prestone Tynsong announced that the April 10 Garo Hills Autonomous District Council election will be deferred, citing a grim law‑and‑order picture after days of clashes in the plain belt.
“The condition and situation that we have in Garo Hills is very grim,” Tynsong told reporters after a video conference with Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Wednesday.
“However, getting the reports and inputs from all angles ultimately we decided to postponed the general elections to the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council which is supposed to be held on April 10. This is the decision we have taken,” he said while informing that the government will hold a cabinet meeting tomorrow (Thursday) evening at 5pm to further discuss about the future course of action.
He urged Garo residents — tribal and non‑tribal — to “be cool and calm” and invited stakeholders to discuss issues and share their views and opinions.
“I would request all of them to be cool and calm since the government has taken the decision to postponed the elections,” Tynsong said adding “During the postponement, I would like to call all the stakeholders to come forward and give their views and concerns and the issues and we are ready for further deliberations and discussions with all of them. So, from the government side, I would request all concerned NGOs as well as residents of Garo Hills both tribal and non-tribal to kindly calm down and let us again make sure that law and order is back to normalcy.”
Tynsong expressed “discontent” over attacks, including one on an NPP office in Tura, and asked NGOs to help restore normalcy.
“Again, I would like to express our discontenment with the incident that happened and I would again request all citizens of Garo Hills in particular to calm down and any issues that you have in your mind we are open to discussion.”
Tynsong acknowledged Tuesday’s High Court order that nullified the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council’s Scheduled‑Tribe certificate notification, conceding the executive committee “did not follow proper norms” by skipping the full council and gubernatorial assent.
“The practices of the EC…first they have to pass in EC and thereafter bring it to the house…just like Meghalaya Legislative Assembly,” Tynsong said. “Therefore the decision taken by the EC…is totally incomplete…if they wanted amendment, it has to be passed by House and come to Governor for assent.”
He noted Autonomous District rules differ by region but did not commit when—or whether—GHADC will restart the process.
“Let me tell you one thing the AD rules applies only to the respective ADCs. Khasi and Jaintia Hills yes we have AD rules including Garo Hills but at this juncture what happened was in GHADC it seems the aspiration of the public is to amend the rules of the ADCs which have been followed all these years by the people of Garo Hills sector.”
Rejecting the government failure charge in GHADC dispute, the deputy chief minister said, “You can’t blame the government because this is fully the authority of the ADCs.”
“They have legislative, judicial and executive powers more or less like state government and central government…so you can’t say that the government’s failure is there and that is why the law and order crop up it is not like that. In fact, the district council themselves if they realised that they should have had a special session discuss about this issue. Since they already knew it, why not they discuss this issue? Bring it to the district council session and then pass it and then the next course of action will happen.”
He said the government “has no role” in directing GHADC to amend rules and urged council leaders to follow the legislative route—EC, full House, then Governor.
“It is not the duty of the government to say you have to pass and you have to do the amendment of this, this. In fact, they are the leaders and they are ones who have to understand where to amend or where to again incorporate all those existing regulations, laws, rules and whatever they have.”
Further, Tynsong declined to speculate on the recent shooting that killed a protester, noting “it appears bullet hit these (people) may be from the ground” but “let the enquiry goes into this in details.”
District officials, he said, have instructions to provide full medical care to those injured.
“The concentration of government as of today is to make sure the situation is subsided completely,” Tynsong added, confirming that public crowds had begun thinning according to reports.
By Our Reporter
