GSMC seeks President’s help to help carve out ‘Garoland’

The Garoland State Movement Committee (GSMC) has urged President Droupadi Murmu to help carve out a separate Garoland state out of existing Meghalaya and Garo-inhabited areas in neighbouring Assam.
In a memorandum submitted to President Murmu, the GSMC said that the demand for creation of a separate Garoland State is “not a new thing”, the petition said that it is a century-old issue which dated back to India’s Pre-Independence era.
“The movement for the creation of Garoland State comprising pre-dominantly Garo inhabited areas of the erstwhile undivided Assam and vast chunks of land occupied by the indigenous Garo Tribe spread over Mymensingh and Dhaka Districts now in present day Bangladesh was spearheaded by a patriotic Garo leader Late Matgrik Sonaram R. Sangma during British Regime in 1895, which was much earlier than the movement for India’s Independence by Mahatma Gandhi,” the GSMC wrote to the president.
The memorandum signed by Balkarin Ch. Marak, Acting Chairman GSMC, said that Garo leaders had pursued the issue with the erstwhile undivided state of Assam and thereafter the state of Meghalaya since 1972 and the successive Central Governments but “this genuine issue remained unattended to”. Recently, Garo Hills Autonomous District Council, a constitutional body under the provisions of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution, had passed resolution for creation of Garoland state.
The GSMC also informed the President that the Hills State Peoples Democratic Party (HSPDP) and Garo National Council had jointly submitted memorandum for creation of separate state for Garoland State and Khasi-Jaintia State on August 20, 2011.
Noting that the Garo, Khasi and Jaintia tribal communities have been living peacefully, the GSMC said that all three communities have different languages, cultures, customs, traditions, believes, local governance and even land holding systems, and that the “three tribes are totally different from each other, which impedes the growth of the state and its people altogether”.
However, the GSMC informed the President that Garo Hills was economically backward due to “regional disparities”.
Urging the president to consider their demand for creation of a separate Garoland state, the GSMC said the Garo people would like to see light in the dark, according to our constitution, the rights of Garo people should be protected.
The GSMC had also met Union minister of tribal affairs, Jual Oram, and submitted a memorandum in support of its demand for a separate state for the Garo community.