By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Leader of Opposition Conrad K Sangma has said that the tense law and order situation in Garo Hills is worse than Manipur with the GNLA intensifying its activities in the past two years and the police failing to combat them.
“There is feeling of insecurity among the people of Garo Hills. The GNLA is abducting and releasing people at its own will,” Sangma said while moving a motion on the law and order situation in the State during the Assembly Budget Session on Tuesday.
He said that the Government officials are being abducted by the insurgent group and those who are badly affected are the BDOs.
“The BDOs are not attending their offices since they fear that they might be abducted. In fact, the BDOs are getting more security than the elected representatives,” Leader of Opposition said.
He also recalled about the recent abduction of the MeECL officials by the GNLA who were later released on the will of the militant outfit.
The Opposition leader said that even surrendered GNLA militants are on the run fearing that they may be killed by the GNLA.
While maintaining that eliminating of the GNLA is not a solution to the militancy problem, Sangma feels that the Government should try to go resolve the root cause which led to this problem.
Stating that the Government should look into the larger issue of achieving lasting peace for the people of the State, he said “to achieve this objective, the Government should consider taking into confidence church leaders, NGOs and the legislators representing the affected areas,” Sangma said.
Emphasizing on the need for the State police to strengthen the intelligence gathering rather concentrating on the operations, Sangma said that the government needs to hold back the security forces for some time and invest on intelligence gathering to make its operation successful.
On the ongoing talks with the ANVC, Leader of Opposition said that the government should ensure that the talks with the militant outfit do not break down resulting in ANVC cadres taking up arms again.
Independent legislator Manas Chaudhuri said that the government should come hard on trouble-makers in Garo Hills and strengthen its deployment of force.
According to Chaudhuri, there is already a fear psychosis among the minds of the people in Garo Hills and the shops and business establishments are closed early evening.
“It is also a cause of concern that the elected representatives are getting demand notes from militants,” Chaudhuri said.
James K Sangma (NCP) also participated in the debate.
In his reply, Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma said that the Government is sincere in its approach to neutralize the activities of the GNLA.
However, informing that 30 per cent of GNLA cadres are from Assam, Dr Mukul said that this issue requires greater dimension in tackling it and it also requires the cooperation of the Government of Assam.
“In fact, the youths from Assam have joined the GNLA to protect their own tribesmen in the aftermath of the Garo-Rabha ethnic clash along the Assam-Meghalaya border last year,” he said.
Expressing concern over the mushrooming number of militant groups in Garo Hills, Dr Mukul said that police neutralized the formation a new militant group in Tikrikilla, West Garo Hills district, bordering Assam.
“Another concern is that militant groups are taking shelter in Bangladesh. We have taken up the matter with the Centre to put pressure on Bangladesh to take action against the militants,” the Chief Minister said
Stating that police-population ratio in the State is much below the national average, he said that the police-population ration is just 110 per 1 lakh population while the national average is 180 per 1 lakh population.
Taking this fact into consideration, he said that there are certain areas in the State where there is no presence of police and this government has taken steps to strengthened the police apparatus by upgrading police outposts into full-fledged police stations.
“We have also taken up with the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) to create two more Indian Reserve Battalions and two battalions of ‘home and hearth’ and ‘ecology’ for territorial integrity of India and protection of environment in Meghalaya,” Dr Sangma added.