SHILLONG : The Voice of People’s Party (VPP) president Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit has defended the KHADC’s decision to remove mandatory consultation with traditional institutions while fixing limits on land sales, saying the step was taken because the existing process had failed to prevent large-scale alienation of community land.
Basaiawmoit was responding to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma’s criticism of the proposed amendment to the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council’s land law.
Conrad had accused the VPP-led Executive Committee of going against its own call for community participation by seeking to remove the requirement for prior consultation with Dorbar Shnong, Dorbar Raid and Dorbar Hima.
Basaiawmoit rejected the charge and said the Chief Minister had not fully understood what was happening within the KHADC.
“I was surprised to see that our Chief Minister was so ill-informed about what is going on in the KHADC when he tried to put the blame on us that we never practise what we preach and that we take away the power of these traditional bodies,” he said.
He said the land law was brought in to regulate community land and prevent its large-scale sale, but its implementation became difficult because the District Council was required to consult traditional institutions before deciding the ceiling on land sales.
According to Basaiawmoit, the traditional heads did not come forward for the required discussions. He said the Council therefore removed the consultation requirement so the law could finally be implemented.
“It was not that the VPP-led Executive Committee in the KHADC took away the rights or the power of these headmen or Himas,” Basaiawmoit said. He added that several Himas have subsequently approached the Council to discuss the fixing of land-sale limits.
Basaiawmoit maintained that the decision to proceed with the limits without waiting for consultation had also received support from people in different Himas and villages.
The dispute follows Conrad’s criticism in the Assembly, where he referred to Section 16 of the proposed KHADC Regulation and Administration of Land (Amendment) Bill, 2026.
The Chief Minister had pointed to the provision seeking deletion of the words requiring prior consultation with the respective Dorbar Shnong, Dorbar Raid and Dorbar Hima.Conrad described the proposed change as “unfortunate” and said traditional institutions were created to provide checks and balances within the indigenous system of governance.
The Chief Minister also maintained that the state government had followed prescribed procedures and had not bypassed established processes in matters concerning land acquisition.
