State’s economy hit hard President informed SHILLONG, August, 08: Meghalaya Pradesh Congress president and former chief minister DD Lapang, Rajya Sabha member Wansuk Syiem and Lok Sabha member from Shillong, Vincent H Pala have petitioned President Pranab Mukherjee seeking his intervention to restore the economic condition in the state, which has been hit by the ban on rat hole coal mining imposed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT). “This ban has not only crippled the lives of lakhs of tribal people in Meghalaya but also thrown out of gear large segments of migrant population who worked in these mines. Some families have even started selling their children due to distress,” the trio said in a petition to Mukherjee. “The Khasi Hills, Jaintia Hills and Garo Hills are the only three districts that constitute the State of Meghalaya, which have been included in Part II of the Table appended to paragraph 20 of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India. The people in all the three Districts are tribals following traditional and customary practices in respect of all walks of life that include land tenure systems, marriage, other aspects of personal law, economic engagements, exploitation of natural resources for livelihood. The term ‘land’ in tribal societies, includes surface, above soil and sub soil rights,” they wrote to the president. “It has therefore become imperative that the Acts of Parliament concerning environment, health, economic sustenance etc., in relation to mining and mineral development in Meghalaya as well as in relation to other economic, social, cultural and political engagements of tribals living in that State, need to be critically examined for immediately exempting their application to all the three autonomous districts so that the traditional and customary economic and social pursuits of the tribals continue to remain unaffected by the intrusion of these Acts of Parliament,” the memorandum read. “As the National Green Tribunal ban on coal mining in Meghalaya has completely devastated the traditional and customary mining activities of the tribals in that State, a Presidential notification for exempting all the three autonomous districts of Meghalaya from the application of the aforesaid laws from a retrospective date, so that the people’s livelihood, in accordance with the spirit and scheme of the Sixth Schedule, is protected and restored. Any failure on this count, may mean the eternal silence of the Sixth Schedule in relation to the people of Meghalaya to the detriment of the objective of the said Schedule,” the three top rung Congress leaders from the state contended in their joint petition. Only solution to protect traditional economy “The only way to protect the traditional and customary economic engagements of the tribals of Meghalaya is to have recourse to paragraph 12A(b) of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India,” the petition to the president reiterated.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 03:47:06 +0000