Secy cannot head school board: Cabinet to Lapang

The Meghalaya Cabinet today rejected Chief Minister D.D. Lapang’s decision to appoint a secretary for the Shillong centre of the Meghal...

The Meghalaya Cabinet today rejected Chief Minister D.D. Lapang’s decision to appoint a secretary for the Shillong centre of the Meghalaya Board Of School Education.

Lapang’s decision to appoint a secretary has brought him into conflict with his deputy and Congress colleague Mukul Sangma. The move has also triggered a law and order crisis and polarised Khasi and Garo politics.

But today after meeting for five hours, the Cabinet rejected the move to appoint an officer of the rank of secretary to head the MBOSE’s Shillong branch. It instead decided to include four academicians in the state-level Official Committee that was constituted on June 15.

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Lapang said he had decided to appoint secretaries for the Shillong and Tura MBOSE offices to blunt the Khasi Students’ Union’s agitation. But he added that the Cabinet saw no reason to appoint the secretaries after the KSU refused to call off its three-day bandh, against the MBOSE’s lapses, in the Khasi, Jaintia and Ri-Bhoi districts.

Trouble began when Sangma, Education and Home Minister, objected to Lapang’s unilateral announcement. He demanded that the Cabinet review the decision. MLAs and NGOs of the region, opposed to bifurcation or “dilution”, have been rallying around Sangma.

The KSU had been demanding the MBOSE’s bifurcation but agreed to settle for a branch in Shillong. It will meet tomorrow to discuss the Cabinet decision.

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