Shillong, Mar 30: Tura MDC Bernard N Marak is confident that a special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Garo Hills will get the go-ahead soon.
Garo Hills has been convulsed recently over the issue of non-tribal participation in the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC). After a flare-up of communal violence, a restriction was placed on candidates in GHADC elections needing to be of a Scheduled Tribe. However, non-tribal voters can, as the rules stand, still vote in the polls.
Any change to the status quo will require an amendment passed in the council. However, Bernard would be happy with an SIR as well as this will, in his view, root out illegal migrants from Bangladesh, dual voters and others who are ineligible to vote.
Bernard, of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) met Meghalaya Governor CH Vijayashankar here today to thank him for assenting to the amendment on ST candidates. The two also discussed the SIR issue and Bernard later told reporters that the Governor had assured quick action on the matter, so a notification on SIR could be expected at “any time”.
Meanwhile, Bernard blamed Esmatur Mominin, a former MLA and MDC from the non-tribal community, for sparking the communal violence in Tura by filing his nomination for the (now delayed) GHADC election in the face of staunch public feeling.
Asked about the ruling National People’s Party (NPP) trying to take credit for the amendment, Bernard stated that he had proposed such an amendment in November last year but this had been ignored; indeed, the NPP was largely in favour of non-tribal participation until the communal violence broke out.
The Tura MDC, a persistent critic of the NPP, also sided with activists and others from the Garo community who were arrested on suspicion of having a hand in the violence. Bernard described it as a mass movement.
