This tableau at the Behdeinkhlam festival on Tuesday focuses on the Assam-Meghalaya conflict.
Shillong, July 12 : A fresh demand to demolish the joint cadre system of IAS and IPS officers of Assam-Meghalaya was made today in the wake of the ongoing protests against the long-pending inter-state border row.
Though the Centre
had recently accorded Meghalaya a separate high court after years of
being under Gauhati High Court, the state still shares a joint cadre
system with Assam.
Stating that the
joint cadre system was one of the factors responsible for Meghalaya
losing land to Assam, Maitshaphrang Movement leader Michael N. Syiem
said, “As long as we have the joint cadre with Assam, the loyalty of
officers would remain divided. If someone who has served for many years
in Assam comes to Meghalaya, his loyalty would remain with Assam.”
Mait Shaphrang Movement is a Shillong-based NGO.
Citing an example,
Syiem said way back in 1979, when K.P.S. Gill was serving under Assam
police, the officer went to Langpih where he stripped the Meghalaya
police personnel of their arms and ammunition, leading to the closure of
the police outpost. “But when Gill came to serve in Meghalaya police,
he did not do anything against Assam police personnel at Langpih,” he
recalled.
Syiem also said as long as a division of loyalty existed, the boundary imbroglio would linger.
“We will continue
to have a weak border policy and weak border management. Although we
welcome the demand to have a boundary commission, we need to first
demolish the joint cadre system. We need to have officers who will be
specifically loyal to Meghalaya,” Syiem said.
Speaking to The Telegraph,
an IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, who did not wish to be
named, said, “Questioning an officer’s loyalty is quite ridiculous.
Bureaucrats are to implement the policies outlined of the government.
Officers alone cannot decide on issues of significance like the border
dispute.”
Stating that an
officer has to serve the government of the day no matter in which state
he is assigned to, the IAS official said, “If the government feels that
an officer is not serving the state well, then the government can always
release the officer.”
Another bureaucrat
said, “No officer who has worked in Assam has come back to Meghalaya.
If I am in Meghalaya, I will remain in Meghalaya. However, all IAS
probationers have to be trained in Assam for one year. Every IAS officer
has worked in Assam for one year.”
The officer also
pointed out a disadvantage if the joint cadre system is bifurcated.
“Suppose we bifurcate the cadre, there is every possibility of a
Meghalaya IAS officer not being able to come to his home state and serve
if he has been allotted work in Assam,” the officer said.
Moreover, Syiem
said all the political parties in Meghalaya should take the blame if
anything happened to the activists who are currently on a
fast-unto-death at Langpih.
“The blame should
go to all political parties. No one can play a blame-game here. If the
border imbroglio is not solved, the people should give the political
parties a befitting reply,” he added.
Expressing anguish
over the lethargic attitude of the people towards the ongoing protests
on the border dispute, Syiem said, “If the people want the government to
act, they should come out and stage a protest. They should not be
content with being paper tigers.”
“Unlike the Nagas who fight to defend their land from encroachment by Assam, the people here are lethargic,” he said.
According to
Syiem, one of the reasons behind the lethargy was the absence of the
sense of ownership over land among Khasi men. “Here, there is no
emotional attachment to land as Khasi men do not inherit land, they only
have self-acquired property. Psychologically, the feeling is why should
you die for something which does not belong to you? Give Khasi men
responsibility and things will change,” he said.
Syiem said the
group has been demanding the enactment of a law on the equitable
distribution of self-acquired and ancestral wealth.
He said, according
to local customs and tradition, Khasi and Garo men do not inherit
property and hence it was a necessity to have the act in place.