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Meghalaya : Garo leaders threaten fast |
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The lull in the Garo Hills of Meghalaya has been shortlived with organisations leading the campaign against the government’s plans for school education deciding to resume their agitation with an indefinite hungerstrike from Monday (Dec. 5).
Garo Students’ Union (GSU) president Andreas T. Sangma said the D.D. Lapang government’s continued indifference had forced his organisation and the Joint Action Committee, a conglomerate of Garo groups, to resort to more protests.
Apart from status quo on the issue of restructuring the Meghalaya Board of School Education, the student organisation has been demanding punitive action against those responsible for the police firing on protesters at Tura and Williamnagar on September 30.
“The government should speed up the judicial probe into the firing and temporarily place the errant officials under suspension. We also want those injured in the incidents to be adequately compensated. Most of them have not got anything. Our stand on these issues remains unchanged,” Sangma said.
GSU activists will go on a hungerstrike not only in the three districts of the Garo hills, but also in Shillong. This could lead to more friction with the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU), which wants the government to restructure the school education board without further delay. On the other hand, the Garo community has steadfastly refused to accept the government-constituted committee’s recommendations, especially to set up a regional office of the board in Shillong.
The school education board operates from Tura in West Garo Hills district and the GSU sees the government’s move as an attempt to bifurcate it.
The Lapang government tabled the Meghalaya Board of Secondary Education Amendment Bill in the Assembly on October 17, but has not been able to proceed further because of the Garo upheaval.
Leaders of the GSU and the Joint Action Committee met Union minister Oscar Fernandes in New Delhi on November 27 to seek his intervention. The delegation requested the minister to ask the Meghalaya government to abort its plan to amend the act.
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