The Meghalaya High Court, through an order on October 27, has given three weeks’ time to the Block Development Officer (BDO) of Demdema to file an affidavit after the officer in question failed to respond to the order set by the court in an earlier hearing of a writ petition filed by one Mozidur Rehman of Moulakandi in West Garo Hills.
The court has further asked the officer in question to appear in person if the BDO fails to file an affidavit in the case within the time frame allotted.
Earlier, in April 2021, Mozidur had filed a writ petition over the “illegal and arbitrary” bifurcation of the Moulakandi Village Employment Council into nine parts without the knowledge of the villagers/job card holders by the respondent authorities.
Earlier the petitioner had sought the original four VECs be reinstated while the new and illegally formed VECs be disbanded.
The petition filed was in view of the violation of the petitioner’s fundamental rights, principles of natural justice and administrative schemes, by the respondents.
Mozidur had said that the division was done arbitrarily with the VEC members being approved without free and fair elections. The last election held to the VEC was in the year 2016, as per the petitioner.
“We were shocked when informed that the VEC members had resigned in 2017-18 and the VEC remained inactive. Therefore, the BDO broke the VEC into nine parts without anyone being informed,” said the petitioner.
Various complaints on the illegal bifurcation followed after which the Deputy Commissioner of West Garo Hills had, in 2019, asked for the appointments to be cancelled and the VEC to be operated as it had been without bifurcation.
However, despite the order by the DC, no attempt was made to revert to the original set-up by the BDO. In fact, in other cases, the VECs were broken up even further in many villages. Currently, as per sources, the Moulakandi VEC itself has been broken up into a mind boggling 13 sections.
The High Court had sought an explanation on the matter from the BDO of Demdema, through a written affidavit. However, despite the order, no attempt was made by the BDO to reply to the court, which led it to pass a new order with a timeframe of three weeks.
