No violation of Meghalaya Transfer of Land Regulation Act: CM

Staff Reporter

Shillong, Sept 21: The resolution moved by the opposition Voice of the People Party (VPP) legislator from Nongkrem Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit demanding a stop to the gross violation of the Meghalaya Transfer of Land Regulation Act, 1972 was defeated by a voice vote in the Assembly today.

“The Nos have it and the resolution is lost,” Assembly Speaker Thomas A. Sangma said.

The resolution was put to vote after Basaiawmoit announced his decision not to withdraw the resolution citing dissatisfaction with the government’s reply.

Basaiawmoit said there is a violation of the Act, but the government is in a denial mode that people not covered under the Land Transfer Act are rampantly buying land in Ri Bhoi district.

“How can they purchase land when they are not residents of Meghalaya? What will the government do against such people and stop them from purchasing land in Ri Bhoi district?” he asked.

He also asked the government to issue a public notice on the definition of tribal.

In his supplementary reply, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said there has been no violation of the Land Transfer Act. “All cases (related to) non-tribal have been based on provisions of the Act,” he maintained.

Sangma further said that any individual can go to the Court if they have concerns that there is a violation of the Act.

“(Because) we have not seen any cases put forward and those cases where the court had given orders, the government has implemented those orders,” he added.

The chief minister also assured that the government will definitely examine the suggestions made by the members on how to strengthen the Land Transfer Act further.

Earlier while moving his resolution, Basaiawmoit had sought to know ‘what action has been taken against those people who are involved in the selling away of our land to the people who are not covered by the Land Transfer Act, especially the Syiem of Raid Myrwet who have voluntarily engaged in this illegal act. Moreover, what action will be taken against those Deputy Commissioner who are willingly registering these lands which are in direct contravention to the provision of the law’.

Earlier, Minister in-charge Revenue & Disaster Management Kyrmen Shylla in his reply said that it is clear that the government while processing any case of transfer, mutation, mortgage, will etc, proceeds as per the provisions laid down in the Meghalaya Transfer of Land Regulation Act 1971 (Act 1 of 1972) and the Meghalaya Transfer of Land Regulation Rules, 1974.

“As of now, no such matter of the gross violation of the Act has come to the notice of the Government,” he said while adding “I would like to impress that the intention of the government is very clear on the matter of transfer of land and that the Act and Rules are followed in letter and spirit, so as to protect the interest of the Scheduled Tribe of the State.”

VPP opposes appointment of MSCTE secretary

Staff Reporter

Shillong, Sept 20: The opposition Voice of the People Party (VPP) today opposed the government’s decision to appoint A Ali as a full-fledged secretary of the Meghalaya State Council of Technical Education (MSCTE) after her retirement.

Moving a short-duration discussion on the issue in the Assembly, VPP legislator from Nongkrem Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit alleged favouritism in the decision to appoint Ali as secretary of the MSCTE since she had once forgone her promotion to the challenging post of principal Shillong Polytechnic.

He said the number of Secretaries on dual charge till date are six (these include: Dr R.N Hazarika (Addl. Director), H.W.Tham (HOD Electrical), R. Dhar (JDHTE/Addl. DHTE), P. Karmakar (JDHTE/Addl.DHTE), O. Ropmay (JDHTE/Addl.DHTE) and A. Ali ( JDHTE/Addl.Director)

He said there were three HODs who decided to forgo their promotion as Principal in the year 2012, for not willing to take up challenging task and these are: Bhattacharjee HOD Electrical, S. Sinha HOD Mechanical and A. Ali HOD Civil Engineering.

Subsequently, the government had to appoint W L Warjri who is the HOD Electronics but junior to them in terms of seniority.

Basaiawmoit said interestingly both S Bhattacharjee (retired) and A Ali served as HODs in Shillong Polytechnic under the Principalship of W L Warjri before they were transferred to the Directorate as Deputy Director respectively.

In 2018, the government decided to appoint A Khongphai, M Kyndiah and SP Basaiawmoit as Principals of Williamnagar Polytechnic, Tura Polytechnic and Jowai Polytechnic respectively.

Basaiawmoit alleged that however in 2019 the government promoted A Ali to the post of Joint Director and this action on the part of the government deprived WL Warjri of the post of Joint Director in DHTE and this has created a wrong precedence in which a Principal who have a field experience of institutional Administration was prevented from getting the post at the Directorate.

“Moreover, the same person who was promoted to the post of Joint Director in 2019 was again promoted to the post of Additional Director thereby superseding three Principals namely, A. Khongphai, M. Kyndiah and S. P. Basaiawmoit which is a clear indication of favouritism on the part of the higher authority to a person who had once forgone her promotion to the challenging post of Principal Shillong Polytechnic,” he said.

“Again the name of the said person appeared when the government announced its decision to appoint her as the full-fledged Secretary of the MSCTE after her retirement. The question now is how this person can surreptitiously manage to reach to the level of Additional Director despite her failure to show an amount of responsibility to serve the department in any given situation. And now she has prepared a post for herself after retirement. Is it justified for a person who had forgo a promotion to avoid responsibility to be rewarded with such a post? Is this not discrimination against our own people?” he asked.

The VPP legislator further added, “I fail to understand why have different governments in Meghalaya choose to create this kind of environment among the officials where some are given favour and others are not. Have we ever thought what kind of situation we are putting those who are being deprived by this stepmotherly treatment of the government to its own people?”

Demanding the government to take corrective steps on the matter, Basaiawmoit said, “People outside are saying that the Britishers had ruled over us and we are forcefully made to accede to the dominion of India and now after we had attained our Statehood, we had expected that Lyngdohs, Sangmas, Marbaniangs, Kharkongors, and others would govern us. However, unfortunately, we are now landed up being ruled by Kumars. There is a saying that there will be no smoke without fire, therefore it is for the government to take serious note of this perception which may be right or wrong. The government should be reminded that it is being judged by conscious citizens for every action. Therefore, I strongly feel that the government should find time to rectify its mistake.”