Despite the expectations by Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) that the 125th Amendment Bill may be tabled in the budget session of Parliament, there is no mention of such bill in the list of bills that will be introduced during the session.
The budget session is scheduled to begin tomorrow and continue to August 12.
On July 18, KHADC Deputy Chief Executive Member (CEM) Pynshngain N. Syiem said that representatives of the KHADC will go to Delhi to meet officials of the Home Ministry and if possible also the Home Minister Amit Shah to push for inclusion of various points in the 125th Amendment Bill.
The 125th Amendment Bill amends provisions related to the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India.
However, the BJP-led NDA government has listed five new bills, apart from the Finance Bill, for introduction in the Budget Session of Parliament scheduled to begin tomorrow.
Besides the Finance Bill, the government is also expected to table The Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill, The Boilers Bill, The Bhartiya Vayuyan Vidheyak, The Coffee (Promotion and Development) Bill and The Rubber (Promotion and Development) Bill.
Under the 125th Amendment Bill, funding for district councils would be through Article 280 but the KHADC wants removal of the words “Village Council” from the bill, so that it does not affect the system of local governance in the State. It also suggested that in place of the words “Village Council”, the words “Village Dorbar” should be inserted.
The KHADC also wants that the words ‘Municipal Council’ should not be included but the words ‘Town Committee or Town Dorbar’ should be inserted in the amendment.
It also wants that the Rangbah Shnongs (traditional heads) should be elected by the Himas or Elakas as per the rules of the district council and not by election to be conducted by the State Election Commission.
On the issue of ‘unrepresented tribes’, the KHADC wants that there should not be any such mention in the amendment bill but it should only specify that a certain number should be nominated members of the district councils.
As far as increasing the number of seats in district councils, there are suggestions that in KHADC there should be 35 elected members and two or four nominated members. At present 29 are elected members and one is nominated.
