No public sympathy for militants, claims DGP
From Our Correspondent
TURA: The new Director General of Police in Meghalaya (DGP) N Ramachandran has said that militants in Garo Hills do not have any public support and his force will go aggressively against all kinds of criminals.
The head of the police force in the State said villagers were being compelled to provide the insurgents with food and shelter due to threats on their lives.
“I met many people at different places during my four-day trip to Garo Hills and the general perception was that there is no public sympathy for insurgents. At one place in East Garo Hills the public demanded the redeployment of a police picket to check the militants,” said Ramachandran.
The police chief has warned that there is no room for being soft on any militant group, be it the GNLA, ULFA-NDFB or other criminal groups, and his force will aggressively pursue every law breaker.
“There will be zero tolerance for law breakers,” Ramachandran added.
For the first time in many years, a new police chief made the effort to pay a visit to his police stations in the remote areas shortly after taking charge.
During the four-day trip to the three districts of Garo Hills, Ramachandran arrived in the insurgency hit areas of remote Chokpot in South Garo Hills, Williamnagar in East Garo Hills and also toured the border belt from Dalu to Mahendraganj border town including Purakhasia.
He disproved the allegation of being alien to Meghalaya which he is serving for the first time through the Assam-Meghalaya Cadre.
“I have served this region for 35 long years in different posts. I was in charge of counter insurgency operations in Assam and was in regular touch with my counterparts from Meghalaya including Garo Hills. I am no outsider,” asserted the new DGP.
One of the challenges for the Meghalaya police is apparently the poor road communication network which bogs down the movement of troops during anti-insurgency operations.
Another cause of concern was shortage of manpower and the living condition provided for the force personnel and their families.
The DGP recognised the difficulty and condition of his officers and men and said that an average policeman is working nothing short of 15 hours a day despite getting the lowest pay structure.
“I am going to give top most priority to uplifting the living condition of my officers and men in the State,” Ramachandran announced, while adding that the increase in strength of police force in all outposts and stations is being mooted at the earliest.
Citizens to play pivotal role in community policing
The common man could soon be participating in the management of traffic congestion in the busiest parts of the town or taking steps to ensure village security with the Meghalaya police coming up with its latest idea of Community Policing involving members of the public.
DGP Ramachandran has said that his department will be laying focus on community policing in which citizens’ committees will be formed that would interact regularly with the police officers of their respective area to ensure law and order matters are resolved at the local level.
The community policing programme intends to have citizens’ committees at the district level, sub-divisional level and the local police station area. These committees would give advise and help law enforcement officers on traffic problems, crowd control during festivals and most importantly on keeping a check on the floating population in sensitive and vulnerable areas like the plain belt region of West Garo Hills where influx is a major issue.
“Citizens’ committees will tremendously help identify and prevent floating populations from illegally residing in a particular place,” the DGP said.
Several hundred illegal immigrants annually enter the West Garo Hills region from neighbouring Assam during the monsoon floods. In many cases the illegal immigrants do not return to their parent state disappearing into the minority dominated areas of Rajabala, Singimari, Mahendraganj or Phulbari.