Are the Mizo students afraid of Chakma students in a fair competition? asks, activist Paritosh Chakma

          The Chakmas of Mizoram have often alleged a tacit understanding between the state government and some jingoistic civil society groups in their larger goal to suppress the minorities with an aim to keep them deprived as long as possible. But the recent act of the Government of Mizoram, at the behest of the state’s all-powerful student outfit the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP or Mizo Students Association), to remove the Chakmas from Category I for the purpose of selection in higher technical courses, has openly brought into public display how community NGOs like MZP are dictating the terms and the government has abdicated its constitutional responsibility to protect the minorities’ interests. The fact that the notified amendments to the State Technical Entrance Examination (STEE) Rules were drafted by the MZP and the government accepting them in toto, speaks volumes about the government’s intention to create unequal citizens, which in turn lead to acrimony and conflicts.

The Mizoram (Selection of Candidates for Higher Technical Courses) (Sixth Amendment) Rules, 2015 notified on 24^th March, 2015  provides for three categories: Category I for Zo-ethnicity people who are “indigenous people”, Category II for Non-Zo ethnicity who are “non-indigenous people”, and Category III for Central government and other state government employees who are not permanent residents of Mizoram. Since Chakma is a non-Zo community, they are excluded from Category I, and instead included in Category II along with, probably, Brus and Gorkhas/Nepali and other permanent residents who are not “Zo”. Earlier, under the Principal Rule of 1999 all the “local permanent residents” of Mizoram were together put in Category I along with the Mizos. The removal of Chakma and other non-Zo Scheduled Tribes from Category I is not merely administrative but has political overtones with far-reaching impacts on the minority communities. The message from the Mizoram government is loud and clear: Chakma cannot be equal to Mizo; Chakma are unwanted in Mizoram.

Fight for limited opportunities:

The problem started after as many as 38 Chakma students qualified, including 25 in medical and 13 in Engineering, in the STEE 2014 by dint of their merit and hard work, and were rightfully placed in Category I under the existing rules (Rules of 1999). The selection of so many Chakma students in engineering and medical seats alarmed the MZP, and it launched protests demanding amendments of the STEE Rules to the disadvantage of the Chakmas. The question is: are the Mizo students afraid of Chakma students in a free and fair competition?

Surely, it is all about fight for limited resources. But the Mizo students body has chosen a short cut way to access these limited resources and opportunities: by depriving the Chakmas through wrongful means. Indeed, opportunities are limited in the state which does not have a single higher technical or medical college/institute. The Central Government made provision for allotment of seats for the State in different institutes of India for higher and technical education. But the number of seats so allotted is quite insufficient to meet the demands of the Mizoram students. This year, Mizoram has a quota of 176 seats in medical and 121 seats in engineering colleges. Hence, the MZP wants to keep the Chakma and other non-Zo students out of the competition by removing them from Category I, rather than giving them a tough fight in the examination halls. The method of selection as adopted now is unfair to non-Zo students, as it provides for “total reservation” of all seats in favour of Zo students.

Contempt of Court:

The concept of “total reservation” for Category I candidates first espoused in the Rules of 1999 were declared as unconstitutional by the Gauhati High Court in September 2000 in Bhanu Choudhury vs State Of Mizoram And Ors. In its judgement the High Court stated, “...we find that the new Rules of 1999 to the extent as contained in sub-rule (3) of Rules 5 providing that selection shall be made from Category I first. In case sufficient number of candidates are not available from Category I remaining seats shall be filled up from Category II and III and likewise, is held to be ultra vires and is struck down.”

This forced the state government to amend the Rules in 2002, providing 85% reservation for Category I (Children of local permanent residents), 10% for Category II (Children of non-local permanent residents) and 5% for Category III (Children of Central government and other state government employees who have lived in Mizoram for the last two years). So, Chakma students, being local permanent residents of Mizoram, were required to compete with Mizo students and other local permanent residents for 85% of the total seats. This was fair enough – let merit alone decide the allotment of seats for local permanent residents of Mizoram, not community or ethnicity.

But the Mizoram government tweaked the Rules once again, and the 2014 examination was conducted by providing total reservation to Category I in contempt of the Gauhati High Court order. This is evident from the “Information Brochure 2014”of “Technical Entrance Examination for selection of candidates for higher technical courses” which stated,

“Method of Selection

On the basis of marks obtained in the Selection Examination, selection shall be made in order of merit from amongst eligible candidates from Category-I first. In case sufficient number of eligible candidates are not available from Category-I, the remaining seats shall be filled in, in order of merit by the eligible candidates from Category-II and Category-III likewise.”

In such a scenario providing for Absolute Reservation for Zo-ethnicity people, no one other than students of Zo-ethnicity will ever be selected, even if they top the entrance examination, as per the new Rules of 2015. Hence, the rules are illegal.

Antithetical to idea of Mizoram:

The amended Rules, 2015 gives the political message that Mizoram belongs to the “Zo” ethnicity and all other communities who are non-Zo may live in the state but as “second class citizens”, or as “guests”, correspondingly, with lesser rights and privileges.  This violates the very idea of Mizoram which is peaceloving and God fearing. The Mizoram Peace Accord 1986 promised that “The rights and privileges of the minorities in Mizoram as envisaged in the constitution, shall continue to be preserved and protected and their social and economic advancement shall be ensured.” That promise has been broken prominently once again.

By creating “unequal citizens” you end up creating more conflicts. The Hmars and Brus have been waging armed movements against the State. Three other major minority communities having their own Autonomous District Councils (Chakmas, Lai and Mara) are up in arms against the state but through peaceful means, pressing for direct funding and even upgradation of their ADCs into the status of Union Territory to escape epic discrimination and neglect by the majority. Chakmas are worst targeted as minorities, but they remained committed to peaceful democratic means of struggle. This is the beauty of Mizoram that the non-Mizo minority community like Chakma have contributed. Mizos must acknowledge this. They should also realize that they (community and state) gain nothing by keeping the Chakmas deprived and backward; rather it harms the interests of the state. At the end of the day, a single community cannot take a state or country to its height of development or glory, if the condition of the other communities (minorities) living therein does not improve. A man may be healthy or well-built in all respects but if any of his body parts are deformed that man will still be considered as physically handicapped. By drawing a legal distinction between Zo and non-Zo among its citizens, what the Mizoram government has eventually done is to further divide the state along ethnic lines. The alienation of the minorities, who already face systematic discrimination, could only weaken Mizoram further.

All communities have wings of fire. The selection of 38 students from Chakma community in a single competitive examination says a lot about the rising aspirations of the Chakma youths. It will be a mistake to try to crush the aspirations of the youth, which is never possible. Further while the motive may be to keep the Chakmas oppressed, my reading is that it might have just helped the otherwise lethargic community to strengthen socially and politically. A few months earlier, the proposal by another leading NGO, Central Young Mizo Association to headcount the Chakmas had brought Chakma leaders of different political parties on a single platform to resist the illegal move. The STEE issue has shaken the Chakmas further, and an appropriate democratic response is bound to come in the coming days.

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Indigenous Jumma People Vow to Launch ‘Non-Cooperation Movement’ on Bangladesh Read

via Indian Country on May 1, 2015

Courtesy Ben Powless/Survival International

: In this Survival International file photo, Jummas and indigenous people from around the world call for the Chittagong Hill Tract peace treaty to be honored outside the UN in New York in May 2011. This week the Jummas were back at the UNPFII still fighting for the Peace accord to be honored – four years later.

As the 14th session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues concludes, one group from Bangladesh has vowed to begin a “non-cooperation movement” against the government of Bangladesh. The Jumma or “Hill People” of the Chittagong Hill Tracts are demanding the country fully implement a 1997 treaty known as the CHT Peace Accord. The pact was intended to settle violence and restore lost lands in the jungles where the Jumma have claimed as their ancestral territory. But indigenous leaders complain the government has been slow to fully implement the agreement. And they’ve threatened a possible violence by today, May 1 if Bangladesh fails to take action on enforcing the accord.

On Monday, the Bangladeshi government addressed the UN about the disputed CHT Peace Accord. A top-level government official, Naba Bikram Kishore Tripura echoed sentiments that no Indigenous Peoples exist in the country.

“We believe that the notion of Indigenous Peoples should be used judicially and in a historically tenable manner,” Tripura said before the panel. “It would be self-defeating [for Bangladesh] to imply the notion in political and socially cultural contexts where historically it is far different from the situation where it is germane,” he continued.

Tripura is the Ministry Secretary of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs, the governing body overseeing implementation of the CHT Accord. He’s also considered a “tribal,” or the term the government uses when describing people claiming indigenous identity, such as the Jumma.

Indigenous leaders attending the talks criticized Tripura’s formal statement before the UNPFII as manipulative on the part of Bangladesh, saying the ministry official attempted to gloss over the issues attached to the defunct CHT Accord.

Since Bangladesh gained independence in 1971, there’s been an on-going debate over land rights and recognition of Indigenous peoples in the country. The dispute led to a violent civil war in the CHT that lasted for more than two decades. The bloodshed ultimately ended with the signing of the CHT Peace Accord. But bitter territorial disputes and violent clashes have lingered on.

According to the 2011 national census, there are an estimated 1.5 million citizens who claim indigenous ancestry, or roughly 1.8 percent of the country’s total population. But Bangladesh argues that all its citizens are essentially indigenous based on historical ties to the region.The Jumma, however, say their ancestral connection to the Chittagong Hill Tracts is exceptional and reference an 18th century treaty signed with the British government as proof of their indigenous status.

Around one million people identify as Jumma, a group comprised of 11 tribal factions, mostly of Buddhist belief. The largest of the Jumma groups is the Chakma, an ancient kingdom that once negotiated a peace treaty under British rule in 1787. Today, the group is the leading political arm for Jumma rights and recognition in Bangladesh. Its leaders were among the chief signatories of the CHT Accord.

Raja Devasish Roy, a Permanent Forum member and Chief of the Chakma Circle in the Chittagong Hill Tracts addressed the human rights panel, urging governments like Bangladesh to recognize Indigenous Peoples in the country. “The generic understanding of ‘Indigenous Peoples’ is now entrenched, within the UN system. It would be of mutual benefit for the Asian and African states and their Indigenous Peoples, to work together with such an understanding,” Roy said.

Latest figures suggest there are an estimated 370 million Indigenous Peoples worldwide, a population that includes groups like the Jumma who are not recognized by their respective countries. Meanwhile, the UN has not formally adopted an official ‘definition’ of indigenous identity, complicating the struggle for the Jumma.

At the core of the Jumma’s fight for recognition are lingering land disputes. The indigenous group claims they are victims of both historic and recent land grabs by Bangladeshi military forces, the government, and Bengali settlers. As a result, violent clashes have taken place in the region for decades. A delegation came under attack during a visit to the region last July.

Upon the signing of the CHT Accord, a CHT Land Commission was formed. But so far, there is no record of any land dispute ever being settled since the commission was created in 1999. Indigenous leaders describe the forum as broken.

Yet, the Jumma have found recent allies. On Monday, a coalition of Nordic countries urged Bangladesh to restore the Jumma their lost lands by fully implementing the CHT Accord.

“Unfortunately, the situation still gives rise to concern,” said Julie Garfeldt Kofoed, Second Secretary of the Permanent Mission of Denmark. “We encourage the Government of Bangladesh to ensure full implementation of the Peace Accord. It is long overdue, as almost two decades have passed since the signing of the Accord.”

Back in Bangladesh, the Jumma have also threatened the government with violence if the accord is not fully implemented. Retired guerilla fighter, Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, popularly known as ‘Santu’, issued a May 1 deadline for Bangladesh to announce a road map on implementing the remaining provisions of the accord. He claims only 13 have been fully enforced out of 25. Whether violence will erupt in the Chittagong Hill Tracts remains to be seen. Larma was once a leader of the rebel group who fought Bangladeshi forces for nearly two decades leading up to the CHT.

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Human Rights Activist, Blogger Paritosh Chakma, writes Mizoram: Creating Unequal Citizens and Conflicts

The Chakmas of Mizoram have often alleged a tacit understanding between the state government and some jingoistic civil society groups in their larger goal to suppress the minorities with an aim to keep them deprived as long as possible. But the recent act of the Government of Mizoram, at the behest of the state’s all-powerful student outfit the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP or Mizo Students Association), to remove the Chakmas from Category I for the purpose of selection in higher technical courses, has openly brought into public display how community NGOs like MZP are dictating the terms and the government has abdicated its constitutional responsibility to protect the minorities’ interests. The fact that the notified amendments to the State Technical Entrance Examination (STEE) Rules were drafted by the MZP and the government accepting them in toto, speaks volumes about the government’s intention to create unequal citizens, which in turn lead to acrimony and conflicts.

The Mizoram (Selection of Candidates for Higher Technical Courses) (Sixth Amendment) Rules, 2015 notified on 24^th March, 2015  provides for three categories: Category I for Zo-ethnicity people who are “indigenous people”, Category II for Non-Zo ethnicity who are “non-indigenous people”, and Category III for Central government and other state government employees who are not permanent residents of Mizoram. Since Chakma is a non-Zo community, they are excluded from Category I, and instead included in Category II along with, probably, Brus and Gorkhas/Nepali and other permanent residents who are not “Zo”. Earlier, under the Principal Rule of 1999 all the “local permanent residents” of Mizoram were together put in Category I along with the Mizos. The removal of Chakma and other non-Zo Scheduled Tribes from Category I is not merely administrative but has political overtones with far-reaching impacts on the minority communities. The message from the Mizoram government is loud and clear: Chakma cannot be equal to Mizo; Chakma are unwanted in Mizoram.

Fight for limited opportunities:

The problem started after as many as 38 Chakma students qualified, including 25 in medical and 13 in Engineering, in the STEE 2014 by dint of their merit and hard work, and were rightfully placed in Category I under the existing rules (Rules of 1999). The selection of so many Chakma students in engineering and medical seats alarmed the MZP, and it launched protests demanding amendments of the STEE Rules to the disadvantage of the Chakmas. The question is: are the Mizo students afraid of Chakma students in a free and fair competition?

Surely, it is all about fight for limited resources. But the Mizo students body has chosen a short cut way to access these limited resources and opportunities: by depriving the Chakmas through wrongful means. Indeed, opportunities are limited in the state which does not have a single higher technical or medical college/institute. The Central Government made provision for allotment of seats for the State in different institutes of India for higher and technical education. But the number of seats so allotted is quite insufficient to meet the demands of the Mizoram students. This year, Mizoram has a quota of 176 seats in medical and 121 seats in engineering colleges. Hence, the MZP wants to keep the Chakma and other non-Zo students out of the competition by removing them from Category I, rather than giving them a tough fight in the examination halls. The method of selection as adopted now is unfair to non-Zo students, as it provides for “total reservation” of all seats in favour of Zo students.

Contempt of Court:

The concept of “total reservation” for Category I candidates first espoused in the Rules of 1999 were declared as unconstitutional by the Gauhati High Court in September 2000 in Bhanu Choudhury vs State Of Mizoram And Ors. In its judgement the High Court stated, “...we find that the new Rules of 1999 to the extent as contained in sub-rule (3) of Rules 5 providing that selection shall be made from Category I first. In case sufficient number of candidates are not available from Category I remaining seats shall be filled up from Category II and III and likewise, is held to be ultra vires and is struck down.”

This forced the state government to amend the Rules in 2002, providing 85% reservation for Category I (Children of local permanent residents), 10% for Category II (Children of non-local permanent residents) and 5% for Category III (Children of Central government and other state government employees who have lived in Mizoram for the last two years). So, Chakma students, being local permanent residents of Mizoram, were required to compete with Mizo students and other local permanent residents for 85% of the total seats. This was fair enough – let merit alone decide the allotment of seats for local permanent residents of Mizoram, not community or ethnicity.

But the Mizoram government tweaked the Rules once again, and the 2014 examination was conducted by providing total reservation to Category I in contempt of the Gauhati High Court order. This is evident from the “Information Brochure 2014”of “Technical Entrance Examination for selection of candidates for higher technical courses” which stated,

“Method of Selection

On the basis of marks obtained in the Selection Examination, selection shall be made in order of merit from amongst eligible candidates from Category-I first. In case sufficient number of eligible candidates are not available from Category-I, the remaining seats shall be filled in, in order of merit by the eligible candidates from Category-II and Category-III likewise.”

In such a scenario providing for Absolute Reservation for Zo-ethnicity people, no one other than students of Zo-ethnicity will ever be selected, even if they top the entrance examination, as per the new Rules of 2015. Hence, the rules are illegal.

Antithetical to idea of Mizoram:

The amended Rules, 2015 gives the political message that Mizoram belongs to the “Zo” ethnicity and all other communities who are non-Zo may live in the state but as “second class citizens”, or as “guests”, correspondingly, with lesser rights and privileges.  This violates the very idea of Mizoram which is peaceloving and God fearing. The Mizoram Peace Accord 1986 promised that “The rights and privileges of the minorities in Mizoram as envisaged in the constitution, shall continue to be preserved and protected and their social and economic advancement shall be ensured.” That promise has been broken prominently once again.

By creating “unequal citizens” you end up creating more conflicts. The Hmars and Brus have been waging armed movements against the State. Three other major minority communities having their own Autonomous District Councils (Chakmas, Lai and Mara) are up in arms against the state but through peaceful means, pressing for direct funding and even upgradation of their ADCs into the status of Union Territory to escape epic discrimination and neglect by the majority. Chakmas are worst targeted as minorities, but they remained committed to peaceful democratic means of struggle. This is the beauty of Mizoram that the non-Mizo minority community like Chakma have contributed. Mizos must acknowledge this. They should also realize that they (community and state) gain nothing by keeping the Chakmas deprived and backward; rather it harms the interests of the state. At the end of the day, a single community cannot take a state or country to its height of development or glory, if the condition of the other communities (minorities) living therein does not improve. A man may be healthy or well-built in all respects but if any of his body parts are deformed that man will still be considered as physically handicapped. By drawing a legal distinction between Zo and non-Zo among its citizens, what the Mizoram government has eventually done is to further divide the state along ethnic lines. The alienation of the minorities, who already face systematic discrimination, could only weaken Mizoram further.

All communities have wings of fire. The selection of 38 students from Chakma community in a single competitive examination says a lot about the rising aspirations of the Chakma youths. It will be a mistake to try to crush the aspirations of the youth, which is never possible. Further while the motive may be to keep the Chakmas oppressed, my reading is that it might have just helped the otherwise lethargic community to strengthen socially and politically. A few months earlier, the proposal by another leading NGO, Central Young Mizo Association to headcount the Chakmas had brought Chakma leaders of different political parties on a single platform to resist the illegal move. The STEE issue has shaken the Chakmas further, and an appropriate democratic response is bound to come in the coming days.

Read More

Mizoram Board of School Education (MBSE) Class X Results 2015 Declared

Correspondence on April 29, 2015

Aizawl: Mizoram Board of School Education (MBSE) has declared the results for their High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) today. The results can be checked at indiaresults and mbse.edu.in website using your roll number and name.  The Mizoram Board conducted exams from 21st February 2015 to 14th March 2015. 

Mizoram Board of School Education (MBSE) was established by the Government of Mizoram in 1975 by the Mizoram Board of School Education Act. The MBSE has rules and regulations maintained by the chairman who is appointed on a contract basis. The Board has the power to supervise, regulate and control the schools and education in Mizoram. The secretary of Mizoram Board of School Education is the chief administrative officer who is assisted by three branches heads namely- Controller of Examinations, the Director (Academic) and the Deputy Secretary. 

Examinations are conducted every year by the MBSE and thousands of students appear for these exams. After the successful completion of the HSLC exams this year, students have been eagerly waiting for their results. The results can be checked school wise, name wise and roll number wise.

Or

Check directly here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B40xzOvNGLfnX1l1eElWUEJVRkk/view?pli=1

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Delhi Chakma protest against police firing in a Buddhist Temple

via CHT24.COM on April 24, 2015

Delhi: The Chakma people residing in Delhi staged a sit-in-protest against firearm use at Buddhist Temple.

 The Chakma people accused that Tripura state ‪#‎CPIM‬ Government and Tripura State police/ Tripura State Rifles personnel used firearms in the premises of Pechartol Buddhist Temple Udayan Buddha Vihar on 13th April 2015,

When Buddhist devotes including women and children visited the Udayan Buddha Vihar ( temple) in pecharthal, Unakoti, Tripura, all of a sudden, about 10 armed personnel including Tripura State Rifles (TSR) destroyed the fence of the temple and entered aggressively into the premises of the temple area and started firing randomly, which scared everyone. They also targeted the Buddhist devotees , injuring some of the including women and children.

The sit-in-protest was addressed and led by Dangu Sameer Chakma (Tripura) , A memorandum has been submitted to Tripura Bhawan, New Delhi with the following demands.
1). Immediate action against the members of the armed personnel involved in indiscriminate firing in a Buddhist temple.
2). Direct the authorities to inquiry into the indiscriminate firing, and
3). Punish all persons involved/ in this incident.

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Total Literacy Drive Programme Launched in Chakma Council

via Mizo News on April 23, 2015

Kamalanagar, April 22, 2015: Lawngtlai District one of the three targeted districts for total literacy drive had its Total Literacy Drive Launching Programme organized today at Kamalanagar, the Headquarter of Chakma Autonomous District Council. The Programme was organized by Lawngtlai District Working Committee on Literacy Drive whose chairman is District Education Officer, Lawngtlai.

The programme was graced by Gana Chandra Chakma, Dy. DPC, SSA Mission, CADC Area as its Chairman and by Dangu Buddhalila Chakma, CEM, CADC as its Chief Guest.

The programme was attended by the appointed animators, CADC Councilors, representatives of NGOs, Village Council Members and Departmental Heads of CADC offices.

Under the first phase of the drive ten villages under CADC were selected which have been assessed and found to have 1403 illiterates. Animators have been appointed to carry out the literacy drive in the ten villages.

The other two districts which have come under the target of the programme are Lunglei and Mamit.

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District Councils in Mizoram want direct funding, but will that really help them develop?

via Scroll on April 21, 2015

Funds may not be the problem. How they are used is more important.

A solitary doctor mans the only public health centre for 81 villages scattered along a 12-kilometre-wide and 140-kilometre-long ribbon of hilly terrain that makes up the Chakma Autonomous District Council. Trained in Ayush, the non-allopathic stream of medicine, Lauva Chakma, the young doctor, can administer only basic drugs and first aid. There is no electricity at the centre – it is yet to be connected to the power grid. “We are only running an OPD [out-patient department]," said Chakma. "We cannot keep patients overnight.” In his thirties, Chakma studied medicine in Bangalore before taking up a job in Mizoram. He said he had not received his salary for three months. 

In the capital, Chawngte, the community health centre, which provides hospital care to about 50,000 people, things are not much better. The hospital has 20 beds, four nurses and two doctors, one of whom is a homeopath. In contrast, said Vanlallawma Khiangte, the medical officer at the hospital, an equivalent centre in Khazawl, a similar-sized town in Mizoram's Champhai district, has 30 beds, 11 nurses, four doctors, a dentist, in addition to an Ayush practitioner.

High hopes, poor outcomes

The Chakma Autonomous District Council was formed in 1972 to address the development needs of the Buddhist tribal community, which is one of the ethnic minorities in the state. But on parameter after parameter, the council fares worse than other parts of Mizoram. 

This isn't unique to the Chakma council. As a previous story reported, even the Lai and Mara councils are faring poorly. There is little development spending.  Villages here, reached only on rutted roads that are all but impassable once the rains come, have little electricity, ramshackle schools and distant healthcare.

This shows up starkly in human development indices like the maternal mortality rate. In Mizoram, for every 100,000 live births, 76 women die. In Lawngtlai, which houses the Chakma and Lai councils, the maternal mortality rate is three times higher at 248.

Such poor outcomes are surprising given the councils were created to give the tribal minorities in Mizoram – small groups with distinct cultures – greater control over the management of their region. 

Blame game 

The council leaders blame the Mizoram government. “The MLAs and the Chief Minister, they are all Mizos, and so they are not liberal in giving us money," said Hmunhre Chinzah, vice-chairman of the Lai Council's Planning Board.

In Aizawl, the state capital, the Mizo leaders blame the councils. “The councils misuse the money they get,” said JV Hluna, the head of the history department in Aizawl's Pachhunga University and the chairman of the Bharatiya Janata Party's Mizoram unit.

The council leaders want greater autonomy. They are pressing the Centre to either make them Union Territories or to fund them directly.  “A state has to generate its own resources," said Hmunhre. "But to make money, you need money. As an Union Territory, we can share money of the central government.”

The lobbying has gained strength after the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power. The party is considering their requests. Ranjit Majumdar, the party official in charge of the North East, confirmed that a draft amendment has been prepared to the sixth schedule of the Constitution, which relates to the tribal areas of four states in the region. While the party is yet to take a final call on the amendment, he said, the draft enables direct funding.

In all this lobbying, a fundamental question has not received much attention: Will direct funding improve the lives of people living in these councils?

The importance of this question goes beyond these three councils. India's North East has 17 autonomous councils. If direct funding is granted to one, the rest will want it as well. For that reason, the Centre needs to be sure that direct funding will address the developmental deficit in these areas.

But to start with, do the problems really stem from low funding?

The contention over funds

In Saiha, the capital of the eponymous district, which became the Mara Autonomous District Council in 1972, Scroll met LC Chakhai, the chairman of the council. “The three councils account for 10% of the state's population," he said. "But between the Lais, Chakmas and the Maras, we get just 4.5% of the state budget.”  

However, such claims don't reveal the whole picture. While the council implements welfare programmes, so does the state administration. This means more development money is spent in the council areas than the budget separately allocated to the council administration.

For instance, while the Mara council earmarked Rs 202 lakhs for rural development in 2014-'15, documents from the state administration's rural development department showed Rs 768 lakh were spent in Saiha on just one scheme – the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

But the councils aren't pleased with this spending. The leaders claim that the pacts signed at the time of the councils' creation envisioned the state's withdrawal from governance in the council areas. “The DC [district collector] and the SP [superintendent of police] are only supposed to look after law and order,” said Hmunhre.

As a 2006 report of the erstwhile Planning Commission on the sixth schedule areas said, “Though the Council has been vested with wide powers, the State Government continues to undertake works in respect of the same devolved function, without consulting the Council.”

And so, the councils have been demanding that the state's implementation mechanism be dismantled and its funds rerouted to them. The draft amendment prepared by the BJP, said Majumdar, permits the councils to have an administrative structure similar to the state, which suggests they would be fully in charge of all development works in their areas.

But is it a good thing to give the councils complete financial and administrative autonomy?

Expense analysis

The answer to that question perhaps lies in how the councils use the money they get right now. Scroll leafed through the annual plans of the Mara council and the budget of the Lai council. In both, an overwhelming proportion of the council budget went into salaries, as the chart shows.

In Maraland, the total disbursement for 2014-'15 stood at Rs 114.50 crore. Of this, Rs 80.91 crore went into salaries. Apart from salaries, there is also administrative expenses. Add that and the amount allotted to actual developmental work falls some more. Take the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary department in the Mara council. Of its Rs 41.62 lakh allocation, it spent Rs 34.25 on salaries and wages and another Rs 3 lakh on administrative expenses, which left it with about Rs 4 lakh. Of this, just Rs 50,000 was spent on medicines – in a department meant for animal care and veterinary science.

The 2015-'16 budget of the Lai Autonomous District Council reveals similar trends.



Here too, so much gets spent on salaries that there is little left for actual developmental work. Even plan funds –marked for development work – are being used for salaries. The education department, for instance, should use plan funds to buy books or build schools. But in the Lai council, of Rs 808 lakh plan allocation for education, Rs 793 lakh was spent on salaries.

High salary bills, incidentally, is a longstanding critique of the councils. Describing them over-staffed, the 2006 Planning Commission report said: “There has been a tendency for the Council to set up multi-tiered secretariats, imitating State Governments in this regard.”

Why is the expenditure on salaries so high? To come to power, local politicians “promise jobs and contracts to supporters", claimed a local businessman, who requested anonymity.

Welfare programmes also appear to run along distinctly political lines, with the money used to reward supporters and weaken the ranks of rival political parties. “The poor get money only if they become Congress supporters," said A Chatua, the president of the BJP in Saiha. "In two years, if nothing is done, the BJP will be finished here. We cannot take care of our members. They will all join the Congress.”

The reason why people change their political affiliations so easily is because getting a party membership is often the only way to access government benefits. In the Chakma council, returns from the old occupations like jhum farming are falling.  “Thirty years ago, if people planted one tin [about 16 kilos] of paddy, they would get 100 tins as harvest," said Jyotirmoy Chakma, the president of the Central Young Chakma Association. "This is now down to five-six tins. That is enough for just one or two months."

The rest of the time, said Shanti Jiban Chakma, the BJP's president in Chawngte, people use payments from government programmes – like Rashtriya Kisan Vikas Yojana or the state government's New Land Use Policy – for subsistence. “There are no other sources of income," he said. "And so, when the council denies access to these programmes, there is a problem.”

Shanti Jiban Chakma is the BJP's president in the Chakma council area. 

It isn't difficult to see how the political system operates in the councils. These are backward areas with little economic activity. For the local elite, the easiest way to power and affluence is to get into the council. “The leaders speak on behalf of the people but these demands are ultimately in the interests of only the ruling elite,” said N William Singh, a professor of Sociology at Pachhunga University College.

“In this area, there is the Mizo National Front, the Mara Democratic Front and the Congress," said a businessman, who did not want to be identified. "All their leaders want direct funding. And they will move to whichever party that is in power. They are like a bat. Sometimes they are a bird, sometimes they are an animal.”

This competitive politics undermines the benefits of those living in the councils. But the leaders are able to escape scrutiny by shifting the blame to the state government and telling the locals that the Mizos are not giving enough money.

What makes it possible for them to get away with such characterisations is that the state administration, dominated by Mizos, does indeed neglect the councils. But the neglect does not show up in the distribution of funds. It takes other forms.

How bias shows

The state administration continues to exercise some control over the recruitment, appointments and postings in the council areas. In the Chakma council area, the hospital at Chawngte is supposed to have a senior medical officer working along with Khiangte, the sole MBBS at the centre. While a doctor has been appointed, he rarely reports for duty. People said the state administration doesn't penalise doctors who do not want to serve in the Chakma areas.

A similar pattern is visible in educational institutions. Beyond higher secondary, the local school and college in the Chakma council area only have teachers for arts. Students wanting to study science and commerce have to move to Aizawl, Silchar or Lunglei. But studying outside is expensive. So most students drop out after class 10, said Shanti Chakma, the BJP's local president.

“If we get a college for science here, then the Chakmas will overtake the Mizos,” said Deepak Larma, a resident of Borapansury, the village with the sole primary health centre in the Chakma council area. "As it is, we are Buddhists, not Christians, and so they want to keep us backward." Larma and his friends were playing cards under a tree. A heavy-set man wearing shorts and a black undershirt, Larma used to work for the Border Security Force. After leaving the force, Larma, a Chakma, has settled in Boranpansury, and like many young people, believes the Mizos are limiting the opportunities available to the state's ethnic minorities.

This perception got a boost in April, when another instance of bias surfaced. The state government amended the rules for its technical entrance exams that determine the selection of candidates for courses like engineering, medicine, nursing and veterinary science. Mizoram categorises applicants into three categories: local permanent residents get 85% of the seats, migrants from elsewhere who have settled in Mizoram get 10%, and those working in the central or state administration and residing in the state get 5%. Through the amendment, Mizoram has restricted the definition of “local permanent residents” to only “Zo-ethnic people who are native inhabitants... and have been residing permanently in the state”.

Noting that Zo-ethnic refers only to the Mizos, Chakma organisations protested this would exclude them from the bulk of seats. A statement from the Mizoram Chakma Students’ Union described the amendment as discrimination against the minority communities of Mizoram, including the Chakmas. Such steps keep the identity issue boiling and distract attention from the mismanagement and corruption in the council areas.

The conventional wisdom that the state administration is hostile to minorities might have considerable truth, but it has allowed local administrations, comprising the elite of these minority groups, to become predators on its own people.

For instance, though the Mara council is cash strapped, that has not stopped it from building a sprawling bungalow in Saiha as the residence of the Chief Executive Member.

The under-construction bungalow towers above the homes in Saiha.

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