The state government held a meeting today in the contest of the issue of Scheduled Tribe certificates and the relevance of the Khasi Lineage Act, 1997 passed by the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC).
The issue has been in the headlines of late after the Social Welfare Department of the state government revoked an administrative order from 2020 permitting the issuance of ST certificates to applicants adopting either the father’s or mother’s surname and also to non-Khasi female applicants who wish to adopt their husband’s surname after marriage.
Seeing itself as the custodian of Khasi tradition and culture, the KHADC would prefer to hold the power to issue ST certificates; that authority currently rests with the state.
With a multitude of Khasi clans, the KHADC has also sought for a comprehensive list of Khasi clans to ease the issuance of ST certificates and ensure that they are not abused through the use of fake clans.
Today’s meeting was convened because the state government wants uniformity in the approach to the issuance of ST certificates or clan certificates throughout the state. That is complicated, however, as the district councils for Jaintia Hills (JHADC) and Garo Hills (GHADC) have yet to frame their lineage act or are in the process of doing so respectively.
The next meeting “will elicit and solicit the opinion of the three ADCs (autonomous district councils) and include the DCA (District Council Affairs) Department and the Law Department to study the suggestions and inputs from all the three ADCs so that we can come up with a notification or an official memorandum that covers the issue of ST certificate for the entire state of Meghalaya,” Lyngdoh said.
The next meeting will be held after the government receives in writing the proposed framework to be adopted by the JHADC and GHADC.
