Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Thursday said the state government can only play a role of mediation in the ongoing crisis at the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), stressing that direct intervention is limited as the institution falls under the Central government. Describing the situation as “very unfortunate,” the Chief Minister said the prolonged deadlock has been severely affecting students and employees, particularly casual workers, making the issue both sensitive and complicated for the state administration.
“Yeah, it’s very unfortunate. What’s happening in NEHU is effecting students and the people working there. This is seems to be a very kind of deadlock situation as of now,” Sangma said, adding that the state government has been engaging at multiple levels to help resolve the impasse. “I have been obviously talking and different levels to the (Union) ministry and to minister himself and others, even to NEHU. But if you all are aware that NEHU is body under the Central government, so it’s very kind of touchy issue for us to directly get involved in,” he stated.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said the state government can only play a role of mediation, which, he noted, is exactly what the government has been attempting to do. “We can only play a role of mediation between the two, which is what we’ve been doing,” he said, pointing out that even mediation has its limitations when consensus is lacking. “But even while we mediate when we give certain recommendations and suggestions and advisable, what if you do this, then we need the support from all sides to then move forward with that recommendation suggestions, and sometimes obviously because of ground situation, those are not possible and again complications come up.”
Calling the situation at NEHU increasingly complex, Sangma said, “So this is what being seen in NEHU, so its being very complicated and difficult for us being Central government institute to directly involved in it.” He, however, asserted that the state government has not stepped back from its efforts. “So we are doing our best, even as we speak today, I think the education minister is in talk with some of the officials from NEHU, trying to find out solution to this deadlock, that we are having. So we are doing our best. We will do our best. We will try our best,” he said.
The Chief Minister also underlined that the state would continue its engagement without infringing upon the autonomy of the Central institution. “We will be in touch without interfering with the functioning and the autonomy of NEHU and without really affecting anybody,” he said, expressing concern for those bearing the brunt of the crisis. “We are doing a best in the best possible way to see if there any meditation that can be achieved and these students and specially the casual workers hopefully will be able to do something to release their salary. It is beyond the jurisdiction of state government and our role is as mediator but we are not taken it lightly and we are doing our best to see that at the end of the day it is our people who are suffering and we would like to see that we can be part of the solution.”
