SHILLONG, JUL 3: The proscribed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) on Friday asked the VPP-led Executive Committee in the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) to immediately withdraw the Khasi Hills Autonomous District (Regulation and Administration of Land) (Amendment) Bill, 2026, terming the justification offered by VPP president Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit “misleading.”

“The HNLC therefore calls upon the Executive Committee to immediately withdraw the Khasi Hills Autonomous District (Regulation and Administration of Land) (Amendment) Bill, 2026,” HNLC general secretary Sainkupar Nongtraw said in a statement.

“Should the Executive Committee refuse to do so, the Governor of Meghalaya must withhold assent in order to protect the customary land rights guaranteed under the Sixth Schedule.”

Rejecting Basaiawmoit’s reliance on the 2011 Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC), Nongtraw said: “By relying on the 2011 Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC), which claims that around 76 percent of households in Meghalaya own no private land, he seeks to justify stripping the Dorbar Shnong and Hima of their customary authority while concentrating unprecedented powers in the Executive Committee (EC).”

“This is not genuine land reform. It is the centralization of land governance under the guise of solving landlessness,” he said.

The outfit said the SECC figure cannot justify a Khasi Hills-specific law.

“The justification collapses upon closer examination. The much publicized claim that 76 percent of households own no private land is a Meghalaya wide figure covering Khasi, Jaintia and Garo Hills alike. Yet this amendment applies only to the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council,” Nongtraw said. “If the alleged crisis is truly a statewide problem, why is only Khasi Hills being subjected to this sweeping transfer of land powers?” he said. “A Meghalaya wide statistic cannot be used to justify a Khasi Hills specific law.”

Nongtraw said Basaiawmoit, as an MLA, should raise the matter in the Assembly, not through KHADC.

“If Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit wishes to defend the 76 percent statistic in his capacity as an MLA, that is a matter for the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly. However, he is neither a member of KHADC nor an MDC,” he said. “It is for the elected MDCs of KHADC to independently examine the evidence instead of adopting a Meghalaya wide statistic without first demanding Khasi Hills specific data,” he added.

Calling the 76% landless claim misleading, the HNLC said, “The so-called 76 percent landless claim is itself misleading. Under the Hynniewtrep customary system, the absence of an individual title deed does not necessarily mean a person is landless.”

“For generations our people have lived, cultivated and inherited rights over Raid and Hima land through customary institutions and community ownership rather than colonial style private titles,” Nongtraw said.

“Equating the absence of private title with landlessness imposes an alien concept upon Hynniewtrep society and then uses that distorted conclusion to justify weakening the very institutions that have safeguarded our ancestral lands for centuries.”

He questioned the data’s logic: “If 76 percent of households in Meghalaya truly own no land, it is worth asking why 88.5 percent of rural households in this state own the very houses they live in. A household cannot build and own a house on land it does not occupy.”

“The SECC was designed to measure private, individually titled land ownership, a colonial-style methodology that was never built to recognize Raid, Hima or community land as a form of ownership at all,” he said.

“Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit is now using that blind spot as the justification for dismantling the very institutions the census was never able to see in the first place.” Nongtraw said the amendment strips customary safeguards.

“Under the existing law, Section 16 required the Executive Committee to consult the concerned Dorbar Shnong, Dorbar Raid and Dorbar Hima before issuing notifications. The amendment removes this mandatory consultation and weakens one of the few statutory safeguards protecting customary participation,” he said. “Concentrating power in one place to solve the problem of concentrated power is a contradiction,” he said.

“If one locked door has a faulty key, you do not hand the master key to a single man and call it security. You repair the lock.”

“That is exactly what this Bill does. It takes a problem of accountability and answers it with a problem of power,” he said.

The HNLC instead called for accountability within existing structures. “If landlessness among the Hynniewtrep people is genuinely a concern, then the answer is accountability, transparency and stronger protection of community land,” Nongtraw said.

“Every land transaction should be recorded in a transparent public registry. Every Syiem, Rangbah Shnong or public official found abusing community land should answer before an independent tribunal or the District Council Court.”

“Decisions affecting community land should continue to involve the Dorbar Shnong, Dorbar Raid and Dorbar Hima so that no individual or political office can exercise unchecked authority over ancestral land,” he said.

Urging traditional heads to organize, he said, “Every Hima, every Syiem, every Doloi, every Wahadadar, every Sordar and every Rangbah Shnong must stand united and, more importantly, get organized in defence of our ancestral land and customary institutions. An organized people are far stronger than an angry crowd.”

“The KHADC Land Amendment Bill, 2026, does not address the real causes of land insecurity,” Nongtraw said.

“It replaces local accountability with centralized political control and removes an important safeguard that required consultation with customary institutions.”

“Genuine reform strengthens accountability while preserving customary institutions. This Bill weakens accountability while centralizing power, and for that reason it should be rejected,” he said.

Also Read: Meghalaya PWD seeks public feedback on draft safeguard documents for MLCIP

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