The Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government will decide on the numbers of border outposts (BOPs) to be set up in all sensitive areas along the inter-state border with Assam during a cabinet meeting to be held on Tuesday.
This was informed by the Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma after chairing an all-party meeting, which was attended by leaders and MLAs of different political parties – here on Monday.
The meeting also started by observing a minute of silence as a mark of respect to the departed souls, who were killed in a firing by Assam police at Mukroh village in West Jaintia Hills District on November 22.
Speaking to reporters, Sangma said, “Tomorrow in the cabinet, we will be finalizing the list for different areas where BOPs will be set up. Hence, we have shared with different political parties that we have decided that we will be putting up the BOPs in these sensitive areas and many others and ensuring that full manpower and full infrastructure and whatever is necessary should be done to ensure these BOPs will be functioning well.”
He assured that the state government is taking all necessary steps to ensure that safety and security of the citizens in the border areas. He also informed that the government has also constituted a judicial enquiry, which is being headed by Justice T Vaiphei.
Announcing the government’s decision to lift the internet ban, Sangma said, “We will not continue with it so the internet access has been opened and now we are also allowing the movement of vehicles with the patrolling of police taking place continuously at all levels.”
Appealing to all concerns to work together to ensure normalcy returns and no further violence in the state especially in Shillong, the chief minister regretted that there were some incidents of violence during the peaceful demonstrations organized in the past few days.
“I have informed them (leaders of political parties) that those violence cases specially where individuals have tried to entered civil hospital and tried to vandalize, actions will be taken against this and the guilty will be punished as per law for doing such acts of going to hospital which is completely unacceptable and the police has been asked to take action against those individuals who have done such acts,” he said.
He said the government has sought suggestions from all leaders present at the meeting and they have sought immediate actions against those involved in the Mukroh firing incident that led to loss of six precious lives and that financial assistance be extended to the bereaved families.
When asked, the chief minister said that the Union Home Minister Amit Shah had assured the cabinet delegation that the Centre will immediately institute a probe by a central investigation agency.
“In fact he (Shah) told us that he would immediately put it out in the press that they will constitute it as I said it is government of India but we will press that it should be ASAP. I will be speaking to the home secretary again today on this,” he added.
The chief minister also informed that the government has decided to regularize the platoon deployed at Mukroh village and said, “That will be regularized and they will continue to be there as we will not be moving them out from there.”
He further maintained that Mukroh village is very much in Meghalaya and said, “Even in 2011 report it has clearly stated that Mukroh is very much in Meghalaya.” He further clarified that the areas ahead of Mukroh which are areas of Psiar, Khanduli are areas of difference and further ahead then starts the Block I –II section. Therefore, Mukroh is very much in Meghalaya there is no question about that.“
Meanwhile, the chief minister reminded that the entire thought process of resolving the border issue has been because of these atrocities and because of the fact that the people in the border areas have been suffering.
“That is the reason why we felt and we realize that the border solution is the only way to make sure this is put to a stop once and for all and hence very aggressively we have started doing this exercise and moving forward,” he said.
He said the two state governments have been closely coordinating to ensure any kind of tension should be resolved quickly and not allowed to escalate and that developmental works should be allowed.
“Therefore, this entire process was going and in a large number of cases the different situations that were there we were able to control a large number of cases and situations that arose but yes this unfortunate incident happened and there have been in the past of reports coming in about the tension and as soon as we get the information at my level I talk to the counterpart, the DC, the CS also talks to their counterparts. So this is a continuous effort that is going on but obviously the situation has brought light to the entire thing and it would be stressed again that this entire tension and pressure at the border has to be reduced and no police, no government, no department can act the way Assam police responded during that time,” he asserted.