The Chief Executive Member (CEM) of Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) transferred Land Ownership rights to around 100 tribal households of Reserve Gittim village in West Garo Hills (WGH) District.

These land ownership rights were presented to the tribal households during a “Thanksgiving” ceremony organized by the villagers on Friday.

The District Commissioner for the West Garo Hills – Swapnil Tembe, the CEO of the Tura Development Board – Rikse R. Marak, and other dignitaries attended the programme.

Addressing the occasion, the Meghalaya Chief Minister – Conrad Sangma, noted that “Right over land is key to the tribal identity of our people. Hence the Land Rights’ transfer to the rightful owners is one of our topmost agendas. In the past four and a half years of our tenure, we have done everything to help the people of Reserve Gittim. We plan to assist tribal communities across the state who are facing similar challenges.”

“Settlement process is very important. For every application such as bank, loan, and certificate application, land document is important,” – Tambe added.

He said that the water and electricity departments would coordinate with each other to resolve numerous problems faced by the residents of the area.

One of the beneficiaries – Sharon D Sangma asserted that “The CEM launched a probe on the matter in 2018 after discovering numerous issues faced by the villagers. Due to a lack of land pattas, the people could not connect pipelines or get electricity and could not apply for tribal certificates.”