ACHIK has organised awareness campaign on Winter Capital/Second Capital with Six A’khing Nokmas in Wangala Building Asanang.

The organization as a part of mobilisation had organised an awareness campaign with six A’khing Nokmas for the people residing in these Six A’khinglands.

Speaking on the occasion, the General Secretary Advocate Bernita R Marak gave a clarification on the Job Reservation Policy, 1972 and the emergence of Roster System which was a verdict of the High Court.

Advocate Bernita R Marak informed the participation about the history of the verdict of Roster System in Job Reservation Policy in Meghalaya.

She also clarified on the matters of cutoff date on Roster System and why Achik community needed to stand together on the issue.

The issue of Winter Capital was also brought up by the Education Secretary, Macklowrence M Sangma where he informed and clarified that the demand for the Second Capital in Tura is not a new one but has existed even before the creation of the state of Meghalaya.

He informed that Second Capital in Tura was in agreement with all the stakeholders during the creation of the state of Meghalaya.

He assured that ACHIK as an organization is working, mobilizing and working in tandem with the other organisations in Garo Hills.

He said that Winter Capital is not the issue of only one organization but it is the issue of the A•chik nation and regretted that some organization claims it as their issue.

He opined that Winter Capital or Second Capital should unite the Garos and other tribes or non tribals across the Garo Hills and hope to see the reality soon.

The realisation of the Winter Capital in Tura would depend on the Unity and the massive movements that the people Garo Hills can create, he concludes.

Meghalaya and Assam are likely to start the second round of border talks next month for finding an amicable solution to resolve the remaining six areas of difference between the two states.

Informing this today, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said, “Sometime in the month of May, we will try to initiate the first round of discussion or continue the next round of discussion of border talks. Let the time come, I expect that maybe in the month of May we will be able to see the next phase (of border talks).”

On March 24, the state government reconstituted the three Regional Committees to examine the present status of the remaining six areas of differences and submit their reports within 45 days.

The six areas of difference include Langpih in West Khasi Hills District; Borduar, Nongwah-Mawtamur, Deshdoomreah, Block-II in Ri Bhoi District; Block- I, Psiar – Khanduli in West Jaintia Hills District.

The two deputy chief ministers – Prestone Tynsong and Sniawbhalang Dhar – will head the regional committees for Ri Bhoi District and West Jaintia Hills District respectively while cabinet minister Paul Lyngdoh will be the chairman of the regional committee for West Khasi Hills District.

The Achik Conscious Holistically Integrated Krima (ACHIK) has said that fighting for the rights of the Achiks cannot be termed as “greedy”.

“The person who made the statement of terming the Achik nation and ACHIK greedy probably has not read the dictionary and the meaning of equity and justice,” public relation secretary of the ACHIK Hamrash N Marak said in a statement.

He said the subjective approach to any problem or issue would narrow the vision and the objective of any person and the organisation therefore pledges to study the Meghalaya Job Reservation Policy and the Roster System verdict of the Court.

The verdict of the roster system by the High Court was given because the HC found discrepancies in the implementation of JRP in the state.

Stating that the ACHIK demands for what is right and the rights of our community and nothing more, Marak said, “It is the duty of the government to repay for the injustice done to A•chiks for more than 50 years,” adding “It must be understood that no community can be suppressed, marginalised and deprived of their rights for years and cannot expect the community to fight back, and A•chik community is no less than any.”

He said that the ACHIK as a society has been organising and reaching out to the A•chik people in Garo Hills and the movement has just started which is getting larger every day and till the realisation of Second Capital in Tura and maintenance of equity and justice for A•chik people in case of Roster issue, the voices and echoes in the hills of Garo Hills shall not cease.

The A·chik Conscious Holistic Integrated Krima (ACHIK) demanded that the cut-off date for implementation of the roster system should be retrospectively from 1972.

In a memorandum to Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong, ACHIK said, “(We) would like to reiterate the organization on behalf of the A·chik people openly take a stand that there would not be any compromise on the cutoff date and the organisation maintains the year 1972 to be considered for the roster system of Meghalaya Job Reservation Policy which is a system to bring equity to the injustices met out to the people of A·chik people.”

The organization also warned that “if any injustice is done to A·chik people, the organisation would resort to democratic rallies and demonstrations under the provisions of the Indian Constitution as the mobilisation by the organisation has already started throughout the Garo Hills.”

It also threatened to approach even the Apex court if injustice is meted out to the Achik people during the decisions to be taken by the Cabinet or an All-party meeting on the issue of the roster system.

Meanwhile, the ACHIK also sought the intervention of the deputy chief minister for establishing the winter capital or second capital in Tura.

According to them, the lethargic attitude of the government in establishing the winter capital or second capital in Tura has led the A·chik people to historical marginalization, economic deprivation, social discrimination and political exclusion, etc.

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 6: National People’s Party (NPP) National President and Chief Minister designate Conrad K Sangma today reiterated his party’s commitment to resolve the border issue and to aggressively take up with the Centre for implementation of the inner line permit (ILP) in the state.

“Of course, our objective would be to resolve the border issue within this five years or much earlier than five years,” Sangma told reporters after taking an oath of office and secrecy as re-elected legislator of South Tura.

On his government to take up issues related to ILP and the inclusion of Khasi and Garo languages in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India, the CM designate said, “Absolutely, these commitments will remain. These are commitments we have made in the past”.

Spelling out his government’s priorities, Sangma said creating a large number of job opportunities will be one of top priorities in the next five years.

“Whether it is the IT sector, in the last five years, we have managed to open a 3,000 seater call centre and BPO IT Park. Our intent within the next five years is that we should open more than 20,000 seats if not we already have sanctioned 5,000 more seats. I am not saying we can do it but it is my target and goal that at the end of this term we should have 20,000 -25,000 seats of the BPO sector in our state,” he added.

The NPP leader also said that he wanted to push the tourism sector in the state adding “because I strongly feel that tourism is one area which we can really work on. There are small ways in which we can create small avenues for livelihood and that’s going to be a big focus for us.”

“We feel value addition in agriculture is something very important and if done in the right way a lot of opportunities can be created in those areas. Of course, we have a very strong sense towards our health sector and education sector. We need to continue strengthening that as these are very complicated sectors and require a lot of investment,” he said while adding that another focus would be on the social sector and infrastructures.

He said that the MDA-I government had done a lot in the last five years in terms of road connectivity and water connectivity.

“I hope we are able to saturate things in the next five years where we will ensure every household gets the water tap connection and ensure every village is connected in terms of road and every house is connected in terms of power – all these our goals and objectives are there. We will be working out details of the economic programmes in the next few days,” he stated.

On the scams alleged by political opponents, Sangma said that the word ‘scam’ has been given by the people who made the allegations against the government.

“So allegations are there but the word scam is not the correct nomenclature to use. It is allegations made by individuals and other political parties as I said we have been transparent in the entire process. Whatever the opposition has demanded in the past we have gone ahead and done that,” he added.