Shillong, July 27: There is lot of excitement in the region after Union Home Minister Amit Shah assured to resolve all the issues of the 10 Autonomous District Councils (ADC) and Territorial Councils in the North East within a month’s time.

The representatives of the 10 ADCs met Union Home Minister on Thursday (July 25, 2024) this week to urge him to introduce the 125th amendment bill of the Sixth Schedule in the ongoing Budget session of Parliament.

Besides the demand to push for the introduction of the 125th Amendment Bill in the Parliament, there hasn’t been much revealed on the points discussed with the Home Minister, except that all the 10 Autonomous councils have their own issues which need to be resolved separately.

Hub News got in touch with Rakesh A Sangma, the chairman of the High Powered Committee (HPC) of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) and representative of the Council in the meeting, to learn more about the meeting as well demand(s) specific to the GHADC.

Expressing optimism on the meeting, Sangma exuded confidence that issues relating to the council would be resolved by winter session of the Parliament. He said Shah has verbally assured of resolving all the issues as soon as possible.

“The Union Home Minister has assured verbally and given his commitment that all the issues would be resolved. We are confident that the 125th Amendment Bill would be placed and passed by the Winter Session of the Parliament,” Sangma informed.

The Constitution (125th Amendment) Bill, 2019, seeks to enhance the financial, executive, and administrative powers of tribal autonomous councils as stipulated under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. This includes provisions for establishing village councils and allocating special financial resources for their support.

The Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha and subsequently referred to the Departmental-Related Standing Committee on Home Affairs. In its 2020 report, the committee raised several concerns about the Bill, leading to its pending status ever since.

Hub News has learnt that a discussion was held on the Article 12 of the Amendment Bill, which relates of laws drafted by the autonomous councils which could be in conflict with State laws. Currently, the bill states that if there’s a disagreement between a local law made by an autonomous council and a state law, the state law will be the one that is followed.

The Union Home Minister has announced to form a 3-member committee to be headed by the Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, within a month.

Another important matter related to Garo Hills taken up was the tripartite agreement signed between A’chik National Volunteers Council (ANVC), the State government and the Government of India in 2014, and the unfulfilled promises in the agreement.

Mentionably, a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) was signed with ANVC and ANVC(B) and the State and central governments on 24.09.2014 following which 751 cadres of ANVC groups surrendered their arms and disbanded on 15.12.2014.

The HPC Chairman said, “Lot of things were demanded, which were granted in principle by the Central and State governments that need to be addressed. We have also raised this issue with the Home Ministry.”

The ANVC’s demands included greater autonomy for the existing GHADC, special package and development schemes specific for Garo Hills for the region’s accelerated socio-economic and educational development.

Also Read: MPSC issues clarification on re-assessment, calls nepotism charges baseless

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