Govt directs holding of public hearing on municipal elections

After a cabinet meeting held here on Monday, Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong told reporters that after a thorough discussion on the proposal brought by the department, the cabinet feels the need to carry along every stakeholder since it is a ‘sensitive issue’.

“So direction has been given to the Urban Affairs department to go to the grassroot, have a public consultation and public hearing with each and every stakeholder and come back to the cabinet on whether the amendment of the Shillong Municipal Act is required,” he said.

He informed that the department has been asked to start the exercise from tomorrow and come up with the proposal at the earliest possible.

According to him, the decision was taken following the recent direction of the Supreme Court to see whether municipal elections can be held in 5 out of 27 wards as mentioned in the affidavit filed by the state government.

Tynsong recalled that based on the Court’s direction, the state government had earlier tried its best to conduct the elections but ultimately could not due to various reasons.

“Out of 27 wards, only five were duly elected during the municipal elections held in November 17, 1998. Again, the government had fixed the elections on November 25, 2000 but it failed because only one nomination paper was received and the same was withdrawn,” he said.

Asked, the deputy chief minister, while admitting that the state had in the past witnessed opposition against holding of municipal elections, said, “Let the department first do their exercise by carrying along all stakeholders and after they have completed, we will take a call.”

“Therefore from the state government side we have discussed in detail today that we really wanted to make sure that once the order is issued that election is to be held it has to be held peacefully,” he added.

By Our Reporter