SHILLONG, FEB 18: Shella village residents on Wednesday demanded the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) to conduct a ‘referendum’ on the election of the secretary of the village and put on hold the meeting of the dorbar slated on February 23.
The demand came after two persons were fighting over the secretary post affecting not only the residents but the functioning of the dorbar village and worse KHADC has failed to intervene till now.
The two who are fighting over the secretary post is Tobias Tiewdop, the secretary who has been put under suspension and the B Ora, the acting secretary appointed by the dorbar on November 2012.
“We demand immediate intervention of the KHADC by conducting a referendum of the residents of the village on the election relating to the post of the secretary,” Roykupar Synrem, a resident of the village, along with three others told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday
Synrem said the reason for demanding the referendum also came after the acting secretary B Ora in 2013 decided to amend the election rules of the village dorbar by allowing only a group of 24-25 executive member of the dorbar to participate in the election process for the post of secretary and other members of the executive committee of the dorbar.
“This sudden change in the election process has brought about opposition from the residents of the village,” Synrem said while informing that since the inception of the Shella village, it is the people of the village who used to elect the secretary and the other office bearers of the dorbar village.
Synrem further informed a group of youths and elders of the village had also submitted a sort of representation to the dorbar shnong on November 13, last year demanding the dorbar to revoke and rollback its decision relating to the election rules. But, he added, the dorbar shnong in a meeting convened to discuss on the matter chose to disrespect the voice of the majority and decided to retain the decision taken by the executive committee.
Earlier, Tobias Tiewdop was suspended as village secretary because of his style of functioning which was not liked and challenged the suspension order of the Wahadadar of the Shella Confederacy (a conglomeration of 9 village, which Shella is one of them) in the Meghalaya High Court.
However, the Meghalaya High Court in its order issued on December 8, last year on the matter stated that, “We have no option but to hold that the Acting Wahadadar though may be Head of the Shella Confederacy had no power to suspend the elected representatives of the Shella Village Durbar, and restrain them from performing their official duties like calling or organizing any gathering/meeting in the name of the Shella Village Durbar, and also to direct them to face the trial before the confederacy.”
After the court order, both Tiewdop and Ora continued to claimed as the secretary of the village and have been trying to convened meetings which has forced the district administration to imposed 144 CrPC since December last year, Synrem said.
Interestingly, the KHADC recently has asked the SDO of Sohra Civil Sub division to lift the 144 CrPC and allow holding of the meeting of the dorbar shnong following request submitted by the acting secretary B Ora to the Council for convening of dorbar meeting on February 23.
The secretary of Executive Committee of KHADC in his letter to SDO on January 29, last month informed that “the terms of office of the present office bearers of Shella Village Dorbar is due to expire very shortly and the new office bearers have to be elected in the annual general meeting of the village dorbar. However, it is reported that the general meeting could not be held in view of the prohibitory order under section 144 CrPC being imposed in the village.”
The secretary in the letter further stated, “It is therefore, requested to kindly accord them with the permission for holding the general meeting of the village dorbar to enable them to elect the new office bearers in accordance with the prevailing custom and practices. It would perhaps, be not out of place to mention that B Ora is the present secretary of the village dorbar who is supposed to convene the general meeting.”
However, Synrem said that this letter of the KHADC has contradicted its own order passed by it in 2012.
The deputy secretary of the KHADC in his letter to the Wahadadar of Shella Confederacy on October 8, 2012 said, “An appeal was received by the EC of KHADC informing that if the dorbar meeting scheduled to be held on October 10, for the purpose of electing the acting secretary and members of the Dorbar Shnong is convened there might be law and order. Therefore we have made the parties appeal before us understand that the issue pertaining to the election of Secretary in Shella village does not fall under the purview of the KHADC since the Secretary is not being appointed by the Council.”
Due to this conflict of interest of the two parties, the headman of Shella village had also sought the advice of the KHADC in resolving this matter, which unfortunately has not been responded till now, Synrem said.
“We therefore demanded the KHADC to disallow holding of the dorbar meeting on February 23,” Synrem said adding that the village and its people cannot be taken for a ride just because of two persons.- By Our Reporter
+ There are no comments
Add yours