Shillong, Mar 6: The state government has not discussed at any level the subject of having some provisions of Article 371 in Meghalaya, chief minister Conrad K Sangma said on Wednesday.
However, he said, there is a need to discuss and debate on the pros and cons of the Sixth Schedule and Article 371 of the Constitution.
Replying to a query raised by VPP legislator from North Shillong, Adelbert Nongrum, Sangma said, “There are pros and cons of the Sixth Schedule and there are pros and cons of Article 371. If you look at all the Sixth Schedule areas, there are provisions of having a legislature wing, executing wing and a judiciary wing, whereas the Article 371 does not have those provisions…Therefore, it is a matter where one need to discuss and debate.”
Stating that Article 371 is not same for all the states, the CM said, “This Article 371 does not mention anything about protection or having to implement central laws. My point being no Article 371 is uniform. For different states there is a different Article 371 with different provisions.”
“But my point being it is a question of really looking at this entire picture. You have Sixth Schedule areas where there is a legislature wing, judiciary wing and executive wing which does not exist in the article 371. Now what do we prefer? I do not know whether this is the right platform to discuss all this as it is a huge debate,” he stated.
Further, the Chief Minister also maintained that there is no question of bringing in the uniform civil code (UCC) to the state.
“We are very clear there is no question of bringing in UCC in our state nor are we adopting anything in that line,” he said.
“We are also very clear that if there are any moves to make a UCC that is in any way going to dilute the powers, dilute the customs and rights of the tribal people, then that is unacceptable to the government and the people,” Sangma added.
