ACT welcomes State Govt initiative to strengthen Article 371F

GANGTOK, 02 June: The Affected Citizens of Teesta today welcomed what they see as the initiative of the State Government to strengthen Article 371 F of the Constitution.

An ACT press communiqué issued by its working president Tseten Lepcha today, states that “continued dilution” of Article 371 F has “multi Dimensional causes like socio-economic and political reasons”.

“The effort to bring about a practical way to frame and  implement an effective and sustainable  Mechanism to  implement the Act as  enshrined in the Constitution of India requires the support and cooperation of all sections of the society and at the same time the responsibility rests with the Govt to take all concerned, particularly the Political Parties, Civil Society Groups and other Stake holders on board and after informed  consultation take such action as deemed appropriate with broad consensus,” the release shares.

Meanwhile, ACT has requested the State Government to carry out measures such as reviewing the largescale acquisition of land for various projects [which it believes to be in violation of Article 371F; finding legal ways and means to “stop rampant inclusion of non sikkimese in voters list without fulfilling the legal formalities”.

The release contends that the dialogue between the State Government and ACT during the latter’s hunger strike “failed” because the Govt “refused to the accept the ACT demand of preventing all people coming to Sikkim with the Hydro projects from registering their names in the voters list in Sikkim”.

ACT has further argued that “Proclamation 3069 being the most important instrument of protection of people of North Sikkim, it is important that it is implemented in letter and spirit”.