Meghalaya Govt locks horn with Governor over KHADC political drama

Shillong, Nov 25:

Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong said that the government would consider winding up the District Council Affairs (DCA) department if Governor, Tathagata Roy wants to by-pass the State Government on issues afflicting the Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) in the State.

The Deputy Chief Minister made this remark after the Governor today decided to address directly to East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner, Matsiewdor War on the approval of the election of Nongthymmai independent MDC, Latiplang Kharkongor as the new Chief Executive Member (CEM) of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC).

"We have purposely created the DCA department to look after the district councils' affairs. But since the Governor wants to handle the matter by himself then it would be better for the Government to wind up the DCA department," Deputy Chief Minister said while speaking to the reporters here today.

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According to him, even the Law department would be relieved of its responsibilities of studying the bills passed by the ADCs.

He further said that the three ADCs-KHADC, JHADC and GHADC- can now directly send the bills which they have passed directly to the Raj Bhavan since the Governor wants to use his discretionary powers fully.

"The Raj Bhavan should not seek the views of the Government on any bill passed by the Council. The Governor Secretariat can directly send the bills to the district councils," Deputy Chief Minister said.

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According to Tynsong, the Governor has not followed the procedures, rules, practices and convention which were followed all these years by directly addressing to the Deputy Commissioner on the approval of the election of the new CEM.

Referring to the recommendations for imposition of the "Administrator" Rule in the KHADC,  he said if the Governor is confused with any recommendation made by the Government then he should have consulted the Chief Minister, Deputy CM, concerned District Council Affairs Minister and other senior officials.

"The Governor declined to accept the recommendations without consulting the Government. This communication gap between the Secretariat and the Raj Bhavan should not be there as they are expected to be in the same page," he said.

Deputy Chief Minister further said that the Government would seek opinion of the legal experts once it received the file highlighting the grounds on which the Governor had rejected the recommendations for imposing of the Administrator's Rule.

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Meanwhile, Tynsong said that the prevailing political situation in the KHADC is not healthy.

"We are not sure if the new EC will be a stable one. If the installation of a new EC will be a solution to the political instability in the KHADC. There are possibilities that in the next few months there will be another group who will attempt to topple the EC. If this happen it will not be in the interest of the Council," Deputy Chief Minister said.

According to him, the overall functioning of the Council will be hampered in view of the political drama.

"If we allow such situations to prevail in the KHADC then other ADCs in the State will follow suit. There are MDCs who has moved a no-confidence motion in the GHADC and it is like we have open the pandora box. From the Government we wanted to stop all this non-sense taking place in the Council," he said.