Imphal, January 07 2009: Raising the demand for early conduct of the District Council election, the leaders of eight different communities settling in Chandel district have urged the authorities concerned to look into the shortcomings of The Manipur (Hill Areas) District Council (Third Amendment) Bill, 2008 .

Participating in a consultative meeting held at the office of Rural Education and Action for Social Change, secretary of the organisation Moses Maring noted that the election of the District Council of the hill districts of Manipur has been pending for more than 20 years now, thus causing lot of problems in taking up developmental activities of the people living in the hill districts.

Maintaining that early conduct of the District Council elections would ensure developmental activities of the people living in the hill areas, Moses Maring pointed out that after the Parliament gave its approval of the Manipur (Hill Areas) District Council Act, 1971 in 1971, the Manipur Legislative Assembly had passed the Manipur (Hill Areas) District Council (Third Amendment) Bill, 2008 .

But of shortcomings have been detected in the said Bill, he said, adding that among these shortcomings, absence of reservation for women candidates in the proposal of electing 26 representatives from all the districts is the biggest deficiency.

The president of Tarao Tribal observed that further any delay in resolution of the issue of District Council would defeat its very purpose with the possibility of Nagas and the Kukis taking two different stands inspite of the fact that the issue is of the tribal communities as a whole.

He also contended that power and function of the would be elected representatives as enumerated in Section 29 of the Manipur (Hill Areas) District Council Bill, 2008 is wanting as there is no guaranteed that the same would be granted full-fledgedly to the elected representatives.

For this to effect, the approval of the Governor is required, But there is no such approval.

So after the election of the District Council, there is the possibility of a crisis over the power and the functions of the elected representatives, the Tarao community leader said, adding that this matter should be very cleared before taking any final decision on the Bill.

Leader of Thadou community Th Houbu Guite contended that the interest of the people at the grassroots have not been taken care of at the time of formulating the Manipur (Hill Areas) District Council Bill, 2008 but that of the policy makers at the upper level.

If the elected representatives are not to be given any power and function, then there is no need for the election.

In fact there is already a crisis over the devolution of power among the members of the Naga Panchayat and Gram Panchayat in Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency, he pointed out.

Founder of REACH-M K Moikham who was also present during the meeting asserted that just like the customary laws of the tribal communities that delimit the rights of the women from participating in the decision making process or occupying higher post, the Bill of the Manipur District Council has also relegated that the women at the background.

Like the reservation of 33 percent of the seats for women in the Gram Panchayat and the Naga Panchayat, reservation for women should also be provided in the District Council election, he demanded.

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