By Our Reporter
Shillong: Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma on Wednesday said that the State Government was open to a land swap deal with the Defence authorities provided they were willing to hand over to the government certain portions of land occupied by them.
Informing that he has taken up the matter with the Prime Minister and the Union Ministry of Defence, Dr Sangma said that the government would agree to a land swap deal with the Defence authorities if they were willing to transfer some portion of the land in Shillong to the State Government.
He categorically stated that the Government was interested in getting back the land along the Lady Keane College and the Garrison Ground so that these areas could be used to ease the burgeoning traffic congestion in the city by way of construction of flyovers. “The State Government can always offer alternative plot of land to the Defence authorities,” he added.
He also said that during his recent visit to the national capital, he had taken up the matter with the Union Ministry of Defence.
The Ministry has shown positive response to the land swap deal proposal, the Chief Minister said.
Mukul defends ban on tinted glass
Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma has defended the decision of the Police department to ban use of tinted glass on all vehicles in Shillong beginning Thursday.
“We are only enforcing what is already there in the Central Motor Vehicle Act, 1988. We are not doing anything which is beyond the law,” Dr Sangma told reporters here on Wednesday.
Chief Minister also believed that it was a good decision considering the growing number of crime cases in the State.
Referring to a recent incident where a person was charred to death inside the vehicle near Shillong College, he said that there were various other crimes taking place inside vehicles with tinted or dark glasses.
“Even militants are taking advantage of the tinted glass,” Dr Sangma added.
Earlier, the Director General of Police, N Ramachandran, had announced that from December 1 onwards anyone caught with black/tinted glasses on their vehicles would be penalised.
As per the Central Motor Vehicle Act 1988, vehicles are free to put tinted glasses as long as they adhere to the norms i.e., minimum 70 per cent transparency in front and rear glasses and minimum 50 per cent in case of side windows.
