SHILLONG, JUNE 19: Deputy Chief Minister incharge DCA Prestone Tynsong on Wednesday chaired a meeting with the three district councils to discuss the need to ensure uniformity in the issuance of Scheduled Tribe (ST) certificate in the state of Meghalaya.
The meeting was held in the presence of the social welfare minister Paul Lyngdoh.
Addressing media persons, Paul Lyngdoh said, “The meeting was held in the context of the issue of ST certificate and the relevant thereby to the Lineage Act 1997 passed by the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC). Today’s meeting convened at the level of deputy chief minister in-charge DCA was held because we felt the need to have uniformity in the approach to the subject of issuance of ST and Clan certificate that should be broad base and to include the entire state of Meghalaya.”
“This is because the Office Memorandum (OM) issued by the Social Welfare department was confined to the Act of the KHADC. Therefore, we thought it prudent to make it more broad based and include the other two district councils – JHADC and GHADC,” he said.
Lyngdoh informed that it was decided that the next meeting will be taken at his level as chairman of the committee that would elicit and solicit the opinion of the three ADCs and will also include the DCA department and the law department to study the suggestions and inputs from all the three ADCs.
“Once we receive their comments, we can come up with a notification or OM that covers the issue of ST certificates for the entire state of Meghalaya,” he added.