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Meghalaya : Sangma blows Garo statehood bugle |
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In Meghalaya, former Lok Sabha Speaker and Garo strongman P. A. Sangma has plunged headlong into the dispute over the Meghalaya Board of School Education, warning of a ‘massive showdown’ with the Congress-led government on the issue and reiterating his support to his community’s demand for statehood.
Sangma said in an interview that the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), to which he returned recently, had begun compiling relevant data to highlight how the Garo Hills of Meghalaya had been ‘deprived’ over the years.
He cited the alleged move to bifurcate the Board of School Education, which is based at Tura in the Garo hills, as another example of discrimination against his community. ‘All political parties (active in the Garo hills) are united on this. After all, it is Garo blood which runs through our veins, irrespective of our party affiliations.’
Sangma accused the Meghalaya government of consistently diverting funds meant for the development of the Garo hills to other parts of the state. ‘Just take any state budget and see what is the allocation for the Garo hills and what is actually given? If the allocation is Rs 100 crore in the budget estimates, the figure is reduced to Rs 75 crore in the revised estimates and comes down to Rs 50 crore in the final analysis.’
The former Lok Sabha Speaker identified the lack of representation in the bureaucracy as the major reason for the Garo community’s problems. ‘There are chief ministers and peons from the Garo hills, but nobody in between. There is not a single IAS officer from the community. That is the problem.’
Caught between conflicting interests, the D.D. Lapang government last week decided to fall back on the committee that was constituted to adjudicate the prolonged tug-of-war over the board of school education.
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