The cabinet will take a call on whether or not to extend the tenure of the beleaguered Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) in the next few days, Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong said today.
The five-year term of the current GHADC will expire this month, as the last election had been held on October 12, 2015.
“The matter will be discussed and decided by the cabinet after Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma returns from his tour of Garo Hills,” Tynsong said when asked about the subject. “The cabinet will meet soon, in the coming days, to discuss the issue.”
MDCs of the GHADC have previously written to the government seeking the council’s extension due to the coronavirus pandemic and other reasons, but social activists and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have demanded that either the elections go ahead as scheduled or Administrator’s Rule be implemented in the council as the GHADC has been accused of serious corruption and has not been able to pay salaries to its employees since the first half of 2018.
The BJP, which is part of the coalition government in power in Meghalaya and has one minister in the cabinet, has decided to urge Governor Satya Pal Malik to impose Administrator’s Rule if elections cannot be held this month.
The BJP is preparing to field candidates in the GHADC elections. State party President Ernest Mawrie said that the saffron outfit has received 38 applications for tickets from 14 constituencies in the 30-member GHADC.
