Meghalaya mulls fresh bill on village administration with

The Congress-led government today said it intended to bring in a fresh bill relating to village administration subject to all political parties arriving at a consensus on the issue.
"We intend to bring a fresh bill if all political parties are in agreement," Deputy Chief Minister Rowell Lyngdoh told the Assembly.
On a query raised by Opposition United Democratic Party legislator Paul Lyngdoh on whether the state government contemplated to introduce the bill in the current session, the minister said, "Consultation will continue with political parties before arriving at such a decision".
He also informed the House that the Chief Minister had earlier this month invited political parties for discussion on the matter though very few had attended.

On being asked whether the move of the government will not infringe into the powers of the Autonomous District Councils (ADCs), the Deputy Chief Minister said, "That is why we say this requires an intensive consultation taking into consideration that there are also areas falling under non-schedule categories."
He also maintained that the state government did not intend to scrap the Ordinance but allow it to lapse.
Meanwhile, replying to a call attention motion on the presence of single-teacher schools in the state, Deputy Chief Minister in charge of Education R C Laloo said there are 47 government LP (lower primary) schools in the single-teacher category out of which 8 government LP schools are single-teacher in West Garo Hills district.

The Education Minister however said the department is taking steps to ensure that such schools are to be equipped with additional teacher to comply with RTE (Right To Education) norms in pupil teacher ratio (PTR) through the process of rationalization.