TUR wants KHADC to empower women in the VAB

A Reporter

SHILLONG, May 28: Thma U Rangli Juki (TUR) on Thursday demanded that the government should change some of the clauses in the Village Administration Bill 2014, especially section 19 and also include a clause empowering women.

Addressing newsmen on Thursday, Thma U Rangli Juki (TUR) leader Angela Rngad said, “There are still many errors in the VAB and it contradicts itself and it is dangerous for us, especially to the system of the Dorbar where each and every one of us have the freedom to participate,” adding “If we let this bill get passed as it is now, then it will destroy what we have.”

“The bill will not safeguard the traditiol institutions or Dorbars. Instead it will abolish and expunge them completely,” said Rngad.

“From the very beginning we have said that the government should take and include the ideas of the general public,” she said, adding that the State is currently facing a crisis because the government is not being transparent on the issue of VAB.

She said Section 19 of the Bill states that at any given time, the District Council can impose administrator rule to remove or suspend all the Committees, Dorbars, Headman, Assistant Headman and they (District Council) will administer and run the villages or localities. “This section in the bill is dangerous.”

Lauding the JHADC on its version of the VAB, Rngad said, “In the JHADC Village Administration Bill there is no such clause like section 19 of the KHADC Bill,” adding that the JHADC has also empowered the women in its bill.

She also said Raid Mynsaw Village which is in Langpih is missing from the appendix 2 of the VAB which is an “act of carelessness”.

Meanwhile, North East Network member Darilyn Syiem said, “The KHADC should explain more regarding the 4th paragraph of the preamble in the bill which reads as ‘to hold onto propriety and honour’.” “As a member who is working for the betterment of women, I feel that this paragraph needs to be specified so that it does not entail moral policing in the Dorbars,” Syiem said