Shillong: Meghalaya’s Rajya Sabha MP, Dr. Wanweiroy Kharlukhi, has supported the Jaintia Students’ Union’s (JSU) recent demand to establish Jowai as the state’s summer capital.
“I am very much for it because I think Jaintia Hills also deserve something and not only that I saw it is the demand of the Jaintia Students Union and once upon a time I was part of KSU, I was president of JSU, so I also support their demand,” Meghalaya News 24 quoted Kharlukhi as saying.
Civil society groups and political figures in Meghalaya are showing increasing interest in the idea of a dual-capital system, with Tura proposed as the winter capital and Jowai as the summer capital.
In February, the Garoland State Movement Committee (GSMC) and the A’chik State People’s Front submitted a joint memorandum to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma to declare Tura as the state’s winter capital.
The Garo bodies emphasised that such a move would enhance the state’s administrative framework.
In response to the demand, Meghalaya Governor Chandrashekhar H. Vijayashankar in April constituted a committee to examine the long-standing demand for the establishment of a ‘winter capital’ at Tura.
Regarding the long-standing demand for Tura to be the winter capital, Kharlukhi stated, ‘Why not? Administration should be accessible to all, not just centralized in Shillong.”
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Adding a historical perspective, he said, “It is up to the government to take a decision on the demand. Earlier, we had Jaintia Raja who had his summer capital in Nartiang and winter capital in Jaintiapur.”
The MP’s support is likely to add momentum to the ongoing public debate regarding the decentralization of Meghalaya’s administrative functions beyond Shillong.
