Meghalaya Govt all set to pass ordinance for repealing MRGA, 2021

“Repealing of the Act can be done through an ordinance and that ordinance can then be passed in the House,” Sangma told reporters when responding to a query if the government would require calling a special session to repeal the said Act.

He said the government had earlier repealed the Meghalaya Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood Regulation of Street Vending) Act through an ordinance, which later regularized in the Assembly.

“Similarly any Act can be repealed through an ordinance and this is the procedure that will be followed,” he added.

This came a day after the Minister in-charge Taxation James K Sangma announced the government’s decision to repeal the MRGA, 2021 following stiff opposition from stakeholders including church leaders and pressure group leaders against the setting up of casinos in the state.

When asked, the chief minister said by repealing the MRGA, there will not be any mechanism to regulate other forms of gambling activities in the state.

“Therefore, that is the other side of the story. We definitely will be back to square one now and we will have to see how we move forward in this line,” he said.

Sangma said the decision was taken after speaking to different stakeholders and in the larger interest of the people of the state.

The chief minister also informed that he had a couple of discussions with the taxation minister even before the announcement was made.

On the allegation that the MDA government was fearing that the issue may have a negative impact in the upcoming 2023 polls, Sangma however said the state government has always maintained that it will listen to the voice of the people.

“We strongly feel that when the concerns of the citizens are there, concerns of the people are there then the government must listen – so whether elections are there or not, the point is that this government has always kept that (voice of the people) as a priority. On many occasions, we have seen it has been done in this manner so it is being done from the point of people’s concern and people’s desire that this should be reviewed and that is what we have done,” he said.

Stating that MRGA seeks to ensure local people are not able to enter different gambling places and necessary licenses have to be applied for such activities, he said, “so obviously in the absence of that there is no specific law, we are back to square one, the way things are in the past that is how things will be as of now until we examine and see how we are moving forward.”

To another question, the chief minister said that it is not a question of clean and unclean, it is a matter of definition and perspective that one may have on the issue.

“Yes, in  a way you are right, if you look at any activity then one could have a particular perception about a particular activity and many activities have different forms of chances and different forms of skills involved in all of them. Therefore, this aspect will always be there. But the concerns about the regulations that we had put into the gaming regulation, this had more concerns than simply the gambling aspect and the concerns of the society at large was that it will have a larger impact than the other forms of gaming and other forms of gambling and the games of chance that are there. Hence, those concerns had been a matter of concern for the government and after hearing everybody out we realized that this is a matter that people are very concern about so we decided that till we are able to move forward properly and  we are able to really come with a proper system where people will feel will be able to take care of the different aspects we felt that let us go with the will of the people and overall the concerns of the people, we decided that we will repeal the Act,” he stated.

By Our Reporter