Quite a few days back, 17-member high level team of state legislators led by Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu called on Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to appraise about the ‘problems’ plaguing the state and requested to consider moving an amendment bill for allowing Arunachal Pradesh to upsize it’s ministry for accommodating more ministers.
And about a week later, Member of Parliament from Arunachal, Takam Sanjoy gave memorandum to the Prime Minister for Constitutional amendment to the Article 164(1A) (which makes it mandatory for 15 percent representation of the total number of seats in the Assemblies in the state or upto 12 cabinet ministers where the 15 percent of total number of seats in the Assembly is less than 12) allowing North-Eastern states to upsize it’s ministry from present 15 percent to 30 percent. His contention was that North-Eastern states being predominantly a tribal states inhabited by various ethnic communities, there is not proportionate representation of ethnic communities in the state assembly leading to frequent reshuffling of council of ministers owing to political differences leading to unstable government.
“A constitutional amendment only can pave the way for 30 per cent representation for all the northeastern states instead of 15 per cent to enable the state governments give proportionate representation to various tribes in the council of ministers of these states. This change would also help give stability to all the northeastern states where there are frequent reshuffling of council of ministers because of political conflicts”
-Source Telegraph
Further he stressed that the constitutional amendment would pave way for Khandu led Congress Ministry to upsize from it’s present 12 Cabinet Minister to 20 in the interest of the tribal state.
“I seek the Centre’s dispensation toward upsizing chief minister Dorjee Khandu-led Congress ministry in Arunachal Pradesh to accommodate as many faces from the unrepresented ethnic groups, facilitating expansion of the council of ministers from the existing 12 to 20 in the interest of the tribal state”
-Source Telegraph
Was the call, by our representatives to the Prime Minister for constitutional amendment, in the interest of this ‘tribal state’ as is being claimed? I fear not. Because, if it was the question of proportionate representation of various ethnic communities of state in the state assembly for all round development and to bring forward the less privileged ethnic communities of the state, they can do so even now without bloating the ministry size.
How? C’mon, we are just a 16 district state having a ministry size of 12. Each and every district of the state could have been given equal attention in this ministry size of 12, if the government wanted so. Besides, don’t we have numerous Parliamentary Secretaries and Chairman’s to various state boards constituted from these state politicos to look into matters?
Now the question comes, if it was not for the interest of the state or less privileged ethnic communities, why there was this demand for constitutional amendment to the article to pave way for up-sizing ministry in the state assembly? Considering the rumors that was doing round the political circles that the Khandu led ministry is in turmoil these past few weeks, it is safe to assume that the move was only meant to subdue those politicos that was trying to upset Khandu Ministry. Had it not been the case there wouldn’t be this case of appointment of so many advisers to the Chief Ministers quite recently.
So, it would be quite safe to say that the demand for bloating the ministry size for the benefit of various ethnic community is mere an eyewash to satiate the political ambitions of our elected representatives and not for the benefit of various communities or the state as a whole. The amendment bill, if passed would only over-burden the already cash strapped exchequer, who had taken INR 300 Crore recently from centre to pay its’ more than 80,000 work force of the state. So, do we really need a bloated ministry in the state Assembly?
Do we really need a bloated Ministry in the Assembly?
Quite a few days back, 17-member high level team of state legislators led by Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu called on Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to appraise about the ‘problems’ plaguing the state and requested to consider moving an amendment bill for allowing Arunachal Pradesh to upsize it’s ministry for accommodating more ministers.
And about a week later, Member of Parliament from Arunachal, Takam Sanjoy gave memorandum to the Prime Minister for Constitutional amendment to the Article 164(1A) (which makes it mandatory for 15 percent representation of the total number of seats in the Assemblies in the state or upto 12 cabinet ministers where the 15 percent of total number of seats in the Assembly is less than 12) allowing North-Eastern states to upsize it’s ministry from present 15 percent to 30 percent. His contention was that North-Eastern states being predominantly a tribal states inhabited by various ethnic communities, there is not proportionate representation of ethnic communities in the state assembly leading to frequent reshuffling of council of ministers owing to political differences leading to unstable government.
Further he stressed that the constitutional amendment would pave way for Khandu led Congress Ministry to upsize from it’s present 12 Cabinet Minister to 20 in the interest of the tribal state.
Was the call, by our representatives to the Prime Minister for constitutional amendment, in the interest of this ‘tribal state’ as is being claimed? I fear not. Because, if it was the question of proportionate representation of various ethnic communities of state in the state assembly for all round development and to bring forward the less privileged ethnic communities of the state, they can do so even now without bloating the ministry size.
How? C’mon, we are just a 16 district state having a ministry size of 12. Each and every district of the state could have been given equal attention in this ministry size of 12, if the government wanted so. Besides, don’t we have numerous Parliamentary Secretaries and Chairman’s to various state boards constituted from these state politicos to look into matters?
Now the question comes, if it was not for the interest of the state or less privileged ethnic communities, why there was this demand for constitutional amendment to the article to pave way for up-sizing ministry in the state assembly? Considering the rumors that was doing round the political circles that the Khandu led ministry is in turmoil these past few weeks, it is safe to assume that the move was only meant to subdue those politicos that was trying to upset Khandu Ministry. Had it not been the case there wouldn’t be this case of appointment of so many advisers to the Chief Ministers quite recently.
So, it would be quite safe to say that the demand for bloating the ministry size for the benefit of various ethnic community is mere an eyewash to satiate the political ambitions of our elected representatives and not for the benefit of various communities or the state as a whole. The amendment bill, if passed would only over-burden the already cash strapped exchequer, who had taken INR 300 Crore recently from centre to pay its’ more than 80,000 work force of the state. So, do we really need a bloated ministry in the state Assembly?