SHILLONG, AUG 7: Congress leaders from Meghalaya sought the intervention of the President Pranab Mukherjee requesting him to issue notification under 12 A (b) of the sixth schedule declaring certain Acts as ‘not applicable’ to the jurisdictions of the three autonomous district councils (ADCs) of Meghalaya
The joint petition to the President was submitted by leaders including Lok Sabha MP Vicent H Pala, Rajya Sabha MP Wansuk Syiem, MPCC president DD Lapang, Forest Minister Prestone Tynsong, GAD Minister HDR Lyngdoh and former Speaker MM Danggo following the National Green Tribunal (NGT)’s ban on rat hole coal mining in the state.
“The President of India, under paragraph 12 A (b) of the sixth schedule of the constitution of India has the powers to exempt or modify the application of Acts of Parliament to these three autonomous district councils in Meghalaya which has never been invoked in the past,” the leaders said in the petition.
According to them, the salutary constitutional provision is aimed at protecting the customary and traditional practices of life and life-dependent economic activities in territories covered by the sixth schedule.
“Though this provision has been hibernation for decades, time has come for invoking it for protecting the basic social and economic rights that are integral to decent livelihood of the tribes in these three district councils of Meghalaya,” they stated.
Stating that recent order of the NGT to ban rat hole coal mining has affected lakhs of livelihood of mine owners, truck owners, workers and transport industry, the leaders said, “This ban has not only crippled the lives of lakhs of tribal people in Meghalaya but also thrown out of gear large segments of migrant population who worked in these mines,” adding “Some families have even started selling their children due to distress.”
They further asserted, “It has therefore, become imperative that the Acts of Parliament concerning environment, health, economic sustenance in relation to mining and mineral development in the state as well as in relation to other economic, social, cultural and political engagements of tribals living in the state, need to be critically examined for immediately exempting their application to all the three ADCs of the stat so that the traditional and customary economic and social pursuits of the tribals continue to remain unaffected by the intrusion of these Acts of Parliament.”
The Congress leaders further accused that the NGT ban on coal mining in Meghalaya has completely devastated the traditional and customary mining activities of the tribals in the state.
“A Presidential notification for exempting all the three ADCs of Meghalaya from the application of the aforesaid laws from a retrospective date, so that the people’s livelihood, in accordance with the spirit and scheme of the sixth schedule, is protected and restored,” they asserted adding “Any failure on this count, may mean the eternal silence of the sixth schedule in relation to the people of Meghalaya to the detriment of the objective of the said schedule.”
Recalling the Supreme Court of India banned timber in 1986, they said, “Now coal mining has also been banned,” adding “The continuous ban on activities dependent upon natural resources in the North East region has caused serious economic destitution amongst the tribals in the region thereby aggravating the region’s underdevelopment.”
According to them, the only way to protect the traditional and customary economic engagements of the tribals of Meghalaya is to have recourse to paragraph 12 A (b) of the sixth schedule.- By Our Reporter
It will be more appreciated if they plead with the President of India to put an end to the long dispute inter state borders with Assam and the rises of unemployments in Meghalaya rather than this self benefits of our MPs and CM and others representatives of Meghalaya.
If the above politicians survive for long as leaders, the environment here will neither be protected nor safeguard. They should have invested their time to bring the Mining Policy into practice so that the environment can be protected if mining resumes. They should have plead the Central Government to solve the boundary dispute which had affected the whole state not only lakh of coal miners and depen.