SHILLONG, OCT 7: Garo Hills will have to wait longer for autonomous council polls. The Meghalaya cabinet on Wednesday cleared another six-month extension for the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC), pushing elections to early next year.
The first six-month extension ends on October 17. With Wednesday’s decision, the government has exhausted the one-year extension provision available under law.
Briefing after a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, MDA spokesperson and cabinet minister Wailadmiki Shylla said, “There was just one formal agenda — extension of the term of the GHADC for six months for conducting election.”
He said the polls could not be held earlier because of law-and-order issues in Garo Hills.
“As you all know, because of that unfortunate incident which happened in Garo Hills, we could not hold the election and we extended it for six months,” he said.
The delay, he said, is now linked to delimitation and SIR.
“Because we have to do delimitation and SIR, and the process is still on, and the earlier six months will end on October 17, we have to extend again,” Shylla said.
“There is provision that we can extend the election in totality for one year, that is six plus six months. Keeping in mind the delimitation is still on and will complete soon, today the cabinet has approved extension for another six months,” he said.
“We hope within six months we can complete the GHADC election,” Shylla added.
